Technology
DevOps Engineer Career Guide: How to Get In, Move Up & Earn More
DevOps engineers divide time between building and improving CI/CD pipelines, responding to alerts and incidents, reviewing infrastructure-as-code pull requests, and working with development teams to improve build reliability and deployment speed. On-call rotations are standard, with expectations typically covering 2–4 weeks per quarter.
Career Path & Salary Progression
| Level | Title | Years Exp | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry | Junior DevOps / Site Reliability Engineer | 0–2 yrs | $80,000 |
| Mid | DevOps Engineer | 2–5 yrs | $125,000 |
| Senior | Senior DevOps / SRE | 5–8 yrs | $165,000 |
| Lead/Manager | Staff SRE / DevOps Manager | 8–12 yrs | $200,000 |
| Executive | Director of Infrastructure / VP Engineering | 12+ yrs | $250,000 |
Median base salary estimates. Total compensation at tech companies may include equity and bonuses worth 20–80% above base.Full salary breakdown →
Top Skills for DevOps Engineers
KubernetesDockerTerraformAWSCI/CDLinuxPythonAnsiblePrometheusBash
How to Get Started
- Bachelor's in Computer Science or equivalent hands-on experience
- Strong Linux systems administration and scripting (Bash, Python)
- Hands-on experience with at least one major cloud provider (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
- Familiarity with containerization (Docker) and orchestration (Kubernetes)
Certifications Worth Getting
- AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional
- Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)
- HashiCorp Certified Terraform Associate
- Google Professional Cloud DevOps Engineer
Industry Outlook
DevOps and SRE roles remain among the fastest-growing infrastructure positions, with the BLS projecting 21% growth through 2032 as enterprises accelerate cloud migration and software delivery automation.
Where DevOps Engineers Find Jobs
LinkedInDiceIndeedLevels.fyiStack Overflow JobsAngelList / WellfoundGlassdoor