Salary comparison
DevOps Engineer vs Systems Engineer salary
DevOps Engineers out-earn systems engineers by about $15,330 at the median. Here is the full side-by-side breakdown — pay range, top states, and experience.
DevOps Engineers earn more — a median of $133,080 versus $117,750 for systems engineers, a gap of about $15,330 (13%). Both figures are national benchmarks (one or both mapped from the nearest tracked occupation).
DevOps Engineer
Mapped est.$133,080
Median annual wage
- Entry (10th pct)
- $79,850
- Top 10%
- $211,450
- Discipline
- Emerging
Systems Engineer
Mapped est.$117,750
Median annual wage
- Entry (10th pct)
- $62,840
- Top 10%
- $183,510
- Discipline
- Architecture & Engineering
DevOps Engineer vs Systems Engineer — pay distribution
Percentile-by-percentile comparison of national annual wages.
| Percentile | Annual wage |
|---|---|
| 10th percentileDevOps Engineer | $79,850 |
| MedianDevOps Engineer | $133,080 |
| 90th percentileDevOps Engineer | $211,450 |
| 10th percentileSystems Engineer | $62,840 |
| MedianSystems Engineer | $117,750 |
| 90th percentileSystems Engineer | $183,510 |
Pay by experience
Modeled progression from entry to principal level for each role (estimated from the national percentile curve).
DevOps Engineer
Systems Engineer
Which should you choose?
On pay alone, DevOps engineers earn about 13% more at the median — but location and specialization routinely move pay by more than that gap.
Pick DevOps engineer if…
DevOps engineers build the CI/CD pipelines, automation, and observability that let teams ship software reliably and fast, often sharing ground with SRE and platform engineering.
- ▹CI/CD, Kubernetes, and IaC tooling depth
- ▹Company type (Big Tech vs. enterprise)
- ▹Years of experience and on-call scope
Pick systems engineer if…
Systems engineers design and manage complex systems across their full life cycle, integrating hardware, software, and processes so the whole thing works as one.
- ▹Defense/aerospace clearance
- ▹INCOSE certification
- ▹Years of experience
DevOps Engineer vs Systems Engineer — frequently asked
Who earns more, DevOps engineers or systems engineers?
What is the salary range for DevOps engineers vs systems engineers?
Should I become a DevOps engineer or a systems engineer?
Source details
DevOps Engineer is not a BLS-tracked title; it overlaps with site-reliability and platform engineering. BLS does not publish a separate wage for this title, so the figures shown are the published wage for BLS SOC 15-1252 Software Developers — the closest tracked occupation. Actual pay for this specialization can sit above or below it.
Benchmarks come from published government wage data via BLS OEWS. Local and emerging-role figures are labeled estimates. Full methodology →