Salaries in IT: DevOps Engineers earn more than developers – the median for "junior" engineers is $200 different

Evgenia Gubina - 26 February, 01:16 PM

The DOU portal analyzed the salaries of DevOps/SRE/Operations, security, sysadmins, and DBAs in the winter of 2025 and shared its conclusions on this issue.

The estimate shows that median salaries for DevOps Engineers now exceed those for developers: $1,100 for Junior DevOps Engineers vs. $900 for Junior SE. $2,900 for Middle DevOps Engineers vs. $2,450 for Middle SE. $5,000 for Senior DevOps Engineers vs. $4,500 for Senior SE. $6,300 for Team Lead DevOps Engineers vs. $5,000 for Team Lead SE.

The median salary of an SRE at the Senior DevOps Engineer level is $5,000. The lower median of a DBA is $4,500. High salaries for SREs and DBAs are primarily associated with the extensive experience of specialists.

DOU data also shows that security professionals earn an average of $2,200. There is a high proportion of beginners here (57% have up to six years of experience compared to 33% among DevOps Engineers) – this lowers the median salary. Median salaries for system administrators are at the level of Junior DevOps Engineers.

Salaries for DevOps Engineers are trending downward. Over the past six months, salaries for Junior DevOps Engineers (-$200) and Middle DevOps Engineers (-$125) have decreased. Senior DevOps Engineers salaries have remained stable after falling in the summer of 2024.

Salaries for SREs, the most experienced DevOps professionals at the Team Lead and DBA levels are trending upward. Salaries for system administrators are mostly stable.

DOU also concluded that product companies pay more to DevOps/SRE/Operations specialists, while service companies pay more to SysAdmin/Network Engineers. At the same time, English proficiency has a significant impact on the salaries of DevOps/SRE/Operations specialists and has almost no impact on the salaries of SysAdmin/Network Engineers.

It also turned out that in Lviv, the salaries of experienced DevOps/SRE/Operations specialists are somewhat higher than in Kyiv.