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Salary snapshot: Which city has the highest DevOps pay scale?

Salary data from Glassdoor shows DevOps experience continues to give paychecks a substantial advantage over other developer roles. If you want to make the most money, move to San Francisco.

The DevOps pay scale for mid-March 2018 varied wildly depending on location, according to new data from job site Glassdoor. But one thing is clear: If you can somehow get DevOps on your resume, you'll make more money -- a lot more -- than as just a software developer.

Devs in San Francisco

In San Francisco, the average software developer's base pay was $104,905 per year, making it arguably the most lucrative place to work in the United States as a developer. But the DevOps pay scale was far higher in San Francisco: DevOps engineers pulled in an average salary of $143,779 -- nearly $40,000 more than a typical software developer. A San Francisco software developer could expect extra bonus compensation of $6,661, but a DevOps engineer would still make almost double that in bonuses, at $11,467.

salary snapshot
DevOps engineer salaries for mid-March 2018

Capital opportunities

If you can somehow get DevOps on your resume, you'll make more money -- a lot more -- than as just a software developer.

Even in a cooler software market like Washington, D.C., where the DevOps pay scale is 17% below the national average, the salary disparity between DevOps and non-DevOps persists. This March, a software developer had an average salary of $85,577, while DevOps engineers made $114,275. That's almost a $30,000 difference.

The DevOps pro made an average of $9,551 in bonuses, while developers brought in just $5,751. Washington, D.C., also had nearly 3,500 open DevOps engineer positions in March -- more than double that of any other cities.

New York and Boston

In New York, the DevOps pay scale was $120,931 for a DevOps engineer and $91,410 for a software developer. That's another $30,000 difference. And New York DevOps salaries are 13% below the national average, according to Glassdoor.

Boston DevOps engineers made an average of $112,188, which is 19% below the national average, but still far higher than the average salary for software developers, at $89,552.

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