DevOps engineer jobs: skills, pay and how to get hired

Updated 5 Nov 2026. Figures from the jobs in our search, not the whole market.

Contents

What a DevOps engineer does
The skills the ads ask for
Where the jobs are, country by country
Your CV for a DevOps engineer job
How we read our data

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What a DevOps engineer does

A DevOps engineer makes it easy and safe to ship software and keep it running. That means pipelines that build, test and release every change; servers, networks and cloud accounts described as code, so they can be rebuilt at any time; monitoring that tells the team when something is wrong; and calm, quick work when it is.

Job titles vary: DevOps Engineer, Platform Engineer, Site Reliability Engineer (SRE), Cloud Engineer. The work overlaps a lot, and we count them as one role. The ladder goes up to platform or SRE lead, cloud architect and head of platform; see the career paths.

The skills the ads ask for

We read a sample of the ads every day and count the skills they name. On a computer, hover a skill in the text to see its share; on a phone, the table has the same figures.

Skill	Share of ads	What is expected
Docker	38%	Small, secure images built the same way every time; know layers, caching, and running as a normal user.
Kubernetes	48%	Deploy, scale and debug workloads: deployments, services, ingress, resource limits, probes and rollbacks.
CI/CD	73%	Pipelines that build, test, scan and deploy every change, with safe rollouts and a fast way back.
Linux	39%	The base of most servers and containers: processes, files, permissions, systemd, networking tools and logs.
Terraform	27%	Infrastructure as code: modules, remote state with locking, plans reviewed before apply, no hand changes.
AWS	23%	Core services (compute, storage, networking, IAM), and designing for failure across availability zones. depends on the provider
Azure	27%	Common in European companies: identity, networking, AKS and policies; often joined to Microsoft 365. depends on the provider
Git	38%	Branching, reviews and history; everything (code, pipelines, infrastructure) changes through a pull request.
Python	31%	Automation and small tools: cloud APIs, data clean-up, checks. Readable, tested code.
Ansible	27%	Configure servers the same way every time with playbooks and roles; know when Terraform fits better.
Jenkins	19%	Still common in large companies: pipelines as code, shared libraries, agents, and keeping it secure.
GitLab CI	10%	Pipelines defined next to the code: stages, runners, environments, and approvals for production.
GitHub Actions	5%	Workflows for build, test and deploy, reusable actions, secrets handling and short-lived cloud logins.
Bash	17%	Short, safe scripts for glue work; know when a script should become a proper tool instead.
Prometheus	15%	Metrics and alerts (with Grafana for dashboards): what to measure, and alerts people can act on.
Google Cloud	12%	Google Cloud: projects, IAM, GKE and networking; less common in ads than AWS and Azure. depends on the provider
Networking	10%	DNS, TCP/IP, load balancers, TLS certificates, firewalls and private networks in the cloud.
English	38%	The working language of most platform teams, tools and documentation, and of incident calls.

Shares of the DevOps engineer ads we read in the last 7 days, as of 5 Nov 2026. Our ads, not the whole market.

Three things stand out. First, containers lead: Docker to package a service and Kubernetes to run many of them. Second, the delivery tools: CI/CD pipelines, often in GitLab CI, GitHub Actions or Jenkins, and infrastructure as code with Terraform or Ansible. Third, the base never goes away: Linux, Networking, and scripting in Bash or Python.

The clouds are mostly AWS and Azure, with Google Cloud behind. Monitoring with Prometheus and Grafana is named in many ads.

Where the jobs are, country by country

Each country below has its own figures: which cities have the most jobs in our list, whether the number is going up or down, how often ads offer remote or hybrid work, and pay ranges from published research, in the local currency.

Germany

18% of the ads offer hybrid work, and 8% are fully remote.

Pay (Base salary)

Entry level: €50,000 to €68,000 a year
Mid-level: €65,000 to €85,000 a year
Senior: €80,000 to €100,000 a year

Total pay: with bonus, Payscale puts DevOps pay at about €45,000 to €89,000 a year; bonuses, where paid, are about €2,000 to €10,000.

Baden-Württemberg pays the most of the states.

Sources: Gehalt.de (2026), Robert Half 2027 Salary Guide (a projection), Indeed (Oct 2026), Payscale (Jul 2026).

Pay researched on 27 Oct 2026.

Language: many ads in Germany ask for German, often because the platform team supports internal teams and takes part in on-call. Start-ups and international teams often work in English.

Cloud: Azure is common alongside AWS, and some companies keep their own data centres or use European cloud providers for reasons of where data is kept.

Law (EU): NIS2 (the EU's cyber security rules for important companies) and GDPR (EU) shape logging, access control and incident reporting.

Job figures as of 5 Nov 2026.

United States

Pay (Base salary)

Entry level: $80,000 to $110,000 a year
Mid-level: $110,000 to $150,000 a year
Senior: $145,000 to $200,000 a year

Total pay: with bonus, Payscale puts DevOps pay at about $77,000 to $170,000 a year; Built In's respondents report about $16,500 a year in extra cash on top of base. Stock at big tech companies can add much more.

San Francisco and the Washington DC area pay the most, then New York.

Site reliability engineers earn more than DevOps engineers on average (Indeed).

Sources: Indeed (Oct 2026), Indeed: senior (Oct 2026), Built In (2026), Robert Half 2027 Salary Guide (a projection), Payscale (Jun 2026).

Pay researched on 27 Oct 2026.

Titles: site reliability engineer (SRE) and platform engineer are common titles for much the same work; SRE roles often pay more.

United Kingdom

Pay (Base salary)

Entry level: £38,000 to £55,000 a year
Mid-level: £55,000 to £80,000 a year
Senior: £75,000 to £100,000 a year

Total pay: the sources give base salary; bonuses are not separated.

London pays about 14% more than the UK as a whole.

Sources: ITJobsWatch (Oct 2026), ITJobsWatch: senior (Oct 2026), Indeed (Oct 2026).

Pay researched on 27 Oct 2026.

Contracts: contract (freelance) DevOps work is common in the UK, often for the public sector and banks. Public-sector roles may need security clearance.

Switzerland

Pay (Base salary)

Entry level: CHF 90,000 to CHF 105,000 a year
Mid-level: CHF 105,000 to CHF 130,000 a year
Senior: CHF 130,000 to CHF 150,000 a year

Total pay: with bonus, Payscale puts DevOps pay at about CHF 67,000 to CHF 153,000 a year, from a small sample.

Zurich and Basel pay at or a little above the Swiss average.

Sources: Robert Half 2027 Salary Guide (a projection), Indeed (Oct 2026), Payscale (Sep 2025).

Pay researched on 27 Oct 2026.

Sector: banks, insurers and pharma employ many DevOps engineers, with strict rules on change approval and where data is kept. Ads often ask for German or French as well as English.

India

Pay (Base salary)

Entry level: ₹4 lakh to ₹6 lakh a year
Mid-level: ₹6 lakh to ₹12 lakh a year
Senior: ₹12 lakh to ₹23 lakh a year

Total pay: with bonus, Payscale puts DevOps pay at about ₹4 lakh to ₹30 lakh a year; the top end is mostly at product companies and multinationals.

Gurgaon and Kochi pay the most, then Bengaluru and Pune (Indeed).

Sources: Indeed (Oct 2026), Indeed: senior (Oct 2026), Payscale (Oct 2026).

Pay researched on 27 Oct 2026.

Employers: service companies, product companies and global capability centres all hire DevOps engineers; cloud certificates are asked for often, and pay is highest at product companies.

Your CV for a DevOps engineer job

A DevOps CV is read by two readers: the hiring software, which looks for the words of the ad, and a platform lead, who looks for proof that you made delivery faster and services more reliable. Write for both.

Use the keywords the ads use

Name the tools the way the ad names them: "Kubernetes", "Terraform", "CI/CD", "AWS". The skills table above shows which keywords the ads use most.
Put the core skills in a short line near the top: Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, your pipeline tool, your cloud (AWS or Azure), Linux, Prometheus.
Add cloud or Kubernetes certificates, such as CKA or an AWS certificate, with the year.
Only list what you can talk about for ten minutes. Every word on the CV is a question in the interview.

Prove each skill

A skill in a list proves nothing. A line under a job proves it: what you built or ran, how big it was, and one result, such as faster deploys, fewer incidents, quicker recovery or lower cloud cost.

Skill	Weak line	Strong line, with proof
CI/CD	Built CI/CD pipelines.	Rebuilt the pipeline for 40 services in GitLab CI; deploys went from weekly to 20 a day, rollback in 2 minutes.
Kubernetes	Kubernetes experience.	Moved 25 services to Kubernetes (EKS) with autoscaling; peak traffic handled with no manual work.
Terraform	Infrastructure as code.	Put 3 AWS accounts under Terraform with reviewed plans; hand changes to production stopped.
Monitoring	Set up monitoring.	Defined SLOs and alerts with Prometheus; pages at night fell by two thirds and recovery took half as long.
Cost	Reduced cloud costs.	Right-sized clusters and added scheduled scaling; the monthly cloud bill fell by a quarter.

Never claim what you did not do. A home lab is fine: say it is one, link the code, and describe what it runs and what you learned.

How we read our data

The jobs: the DevOps engineer jobs in our job search, matched the same way the search matches them. Our list is not the whole market, so we give shares and rankings, never counts.
The skills: we read a sample of the ads every day and count the skills in them with a fixed word list. We keep only the counts, never the ad text.
Pay: from published salary research, with each source and its date, as a range from entry level to senior. It is not worked out from our ads.
Dates: every figure is worked out again each day, and shows the day it was worked out.

Frequently asked questions

What does a DevOps engineer do?: Builds and runs the way software gets from a developer to users: pipelines, infrastructure as code, containers, monitoring, and quick recovery when something breaks.
Is DevOps the same as SRE or platform engineering?: They overlap a lot. SRE puts more weight on reliability targets and on-call; platform engineering on building shared tools for developers. Ads often use the titles for the same job.
Which skills matter most?: Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD, a cloud such as AWS or Azure, Terraform and Linux, with scripting in Bash or Python and monitoring.
Are certificates worth it?: They help most early on and with Microsoft- or AWS-heavy employers. CKA is respected because it is a hands-on exam. Proof of real systems on your CV counts for more.
What should a DevOps CV show first?: Two or three results: faster or safer deploys, fewer incidents or quicker recovery, lower cloud cost. Then a short skills line in the words of the ads.

More on the DevOps engineer role

The cvscored teamPublished 27 Oct 2026 · Updated 27 Oct 2026

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