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In short

Of the 219 site reliability engineer roles at tech companies in the 90 days to Oct 16, 2026, 95 are senior, more than at any other level. The median stated pay for senior roles is $174.5k a year. Platform engineer roles share 8 of the 12 required skills listed for site reliability engineer roles; no other role shares more.

Levels in order

Each level counts its own roles. A median shows only where 50 or more of that level’s roles state pay, and each is taken over a different set of roles.

LevelRolesMedian stated payAt least half ask for
Junior site reliability engineer12 rolesNot shown2+ years, 9 of 11
Mid-level site reliability engineer41 rolesNot shown5+ years, 19 of 38
Senior site reliability engineer95 roles$174.5k a year5+ years, 72 of 81 (89%)
Staff site reliability engineer33 rolesNot shown8+ years, 18 of 28
Principal site reliability engineer6 rolesNot shown10+ years, 2 of 3
Lead site reliability engineer8 rolesNot shown8+ years, 4 of 7

Lead titles say who leads a team, not a step above principal, so lead is listed last and not compared with the level before it.

What rises at the next level

No two neighbouring levels have 50 or more roles whose requirements we read, so no level is compared with the next yet.

Roles closest to site reliability engineer, by shared skills

Compared over each role’s most-required skills, umbrella labels such as “Programming” left out. The more skills two roles share, the shorter the move between them.

  • Platform engineer213 roles

    8 shared: Python, Kubernetes, Go, AWS, Terraform, Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD, Networking

    Median stated pay: $176.8k a year

  • DevOps engineer168 roles

    7 shared: Python, Kubernetes, AWS, Terraform, Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD, Linux

    Median stated pay: $152.5k a year

  • Software architect87 roles

    6 shared: Python, Kubernetes, AWS, Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD, Distributed Systems

  • Security engineer392 roles

    5 shared: Python, Kubernetes, Go, AWS, Incident Response

    Median stated pay: $197.5k a year

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How we count: 219 roles from 159 employers in the 90 days to Oct 16, 2026, each role counted once however many boards post it. Methodology