37 Honest DevOps Manager Salaries
The national average salary for a DevOps manager is upwards of $160,000 per year. DevOps managers are paid so well because they do tricky work requiring an expert hand: getting a company’s developers and network operations teams working together.
A high salary awaits the folks trained and capable of convincing leadership of the right direction, development teams of the right objectives, and operations teams why they should cooperate.
And the good news? These careers can be achieved by earning a DevOps certification.
However, not every DevOps manager will find a job offer with a $160,000 salary. Most probably won’t. That’s because the high-paid DevOps managers skew the national average up. Based on the number of jobs available and filled, most DevOps managers make more than $120,000 per year.
We’ve assembled a snapshot of the current salaries that DevOps managers in 37 states can expect. On top of that, we’ve assembled recommendations for certifications, training, and tools you can learn to improve your odds of earning a high salary.
What is a DevOps Manager?
Usually, a DevOps manager is the liaison between three groups within a company: the development team(s), IT operations team(s), and management. It’s not unusual for those three groups to have competing objectives and even conflicting values. A DevOps manager balances them.
A DevOps manager ensures that every step in a product’s lifecycle runs smoothly while tackling technical problems for developers and operations and supporting the organization’s goals.
DevOps managers are often technical experts in both software development and IT operations. The DevOps managers with the best salaries are a mix of a hands-on technical expert and a hands-off coach. The precise job requirements for a DevOps manager can change drastically from company to company, mostly based on how much of a DevOps mindset and workflow the company has adopted.
Note About Changes in the DevOps Industry
Depending on the company, DevOps managers may sit on a career ladder alongside or above DevOps engineers, and occasionally below DevOps architects. While DevOps architects focus on high-level design—selecting tools, defining system architecture, and guiding long-term strategy—DevOps engineers typically implement and maintain CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure automation, and system integrations within that framework.
DevOps managers often bridge the gap between technical execution and strategic goals. They oversee DevOps teams, ensure cross-functional collaboration between developers and IT operations, and manage the performance of pipelines, releases, and workflows. They may also be responsible for hiring, budgeting, and implementing process improvements across the SDLC.
37 Real Salaries for DevOps Managers
If that broad description of what DevOps managers tend to do excites you, or you think it describes what you’re already doing pretty well, you’ll probably want to know how to land one of those higher triple-digit salaries. We’ve accumulated tons of data about DevOps manager positions nationwide and assembled them here.
We’ve listed the DevOps manager salary information for 37 cities and arranged the salaries into three categories: the average for that market, the high-end average, and the low-end average. The high-end average usually includes the most highly trained and experienced DevOps manager positions, while the low-end average salaries tend to include entry-level spots.
From city to city, even within the same state, the snapshot of what a DevOps manager can expect to get paid changes drastically. Even the national numbers from ZipRecruiter paint a different picture than the 37 DevOps manager salaries chart.
The national average salary for a DevOps Manager is $163,000.
The average high for a DevOps Manager is $180,000.
The average low for a DevOps Manager is $120,000.
But the average by state paints a slightly different picture.
City | State | Low-end Average | Average | High-End Average |
Valdosta | GA | $130,000 | $146,267 | $163,000 |
Brownsville | TX | $126,000 | $141,714 | $158,000 |
Springfield | MO | $130,000 | $145,502 | $162,000 |
Columbus | GA | $129,000 | $145,495 | $162,000 |
Tallahassee | FL | $132,000 | $147,789 | $164,000 |
Macon | GA | $131,000 | $147,084 | $164,000 |
Clarksville | TN | $132,000 | $148,285 | $166,000 |
Montgomery | AL | $130,000 | $146,603 | $162,000 |
Jackson | MS | $130,000 | $146,142 | $163,000 |
Mobile | AL | $134,000 | $150,821 | $167,000 |
Augusta | GA | $136,000 | $152,563 | $170,000 |
Shreveport | LA | $135,000 | $151,681 | $168,000 |
Chattanooga | TN | $134,000 | $149,706 | $166,000 |
Knoxville | TN | $135,000 | $151,792 | $168,000 |
Waco | TX | $132,000 | $147,962 | $164,000 |
Sioux Falls | IA | $132,000 | $148,550 | $165,000 |
Pittsburgh | PA | $143,000 | $160,491 | $178,000 |
Eugene | OR | $146,000 | $164,269 | $182,000 |
Salt Lake City | UT | $144,000 | $161,350 | $180,000 |
Atlanta | GA | $144,000 | $161,218 | $179,000 |
Dallas | TX | $145,000 | $162,598 | $181,000 |
Providence | RI | $152,000 | $170,548 | $190,000 |
Worcester | MA | $154,000 | $172,833 | $192,000 |
Chicago | IL | $152,000 | $170,074 | $189,000 |
Austin | TX | $146,000 | $163,553 | $181,000 |
Minneapolis | MN | $154,000 | $172,597 | $192,000 |
San Diego | CA | $159,000 | $178,793 | $198,000 |
Bridgeport | CT | $166,000 | $186,107 | $207,000 |
Salinas | CA | $163,000 | $182,326 | $203,000 |
Washington | DC | $163,000 | $182,438 | $202,000 |
Alexandria | VA | $163,000 | $182,438 | $203,000 |
Seattle | WA | $163,000 | $182,923 | $202,000 |
Denver | CO | $150,000 | $167,675 | $186,000 |
Los Angeles | CA | $163,000 | $182,531 | $203,000 |
Paterson | NJ | $168,000 | $188,238 | $209,000 |
New York | NY | $170,000 | $191,238 | $212,000 |
San Francisco | CA | $184,000 | $205,686 | $228,000 |
All salaries from Salary.com as of April 2025.
There are currently no cities where the range between the highest-paid and lowest-paid DevOps managers is less than $30,000. Even the smallest gaps—like in Brownsville, TX—are around $32,000. So that old trend of “tight salary bands due to low high-end pay” isn’t showing up in the 2025 data.
The typical range between low-end and high-end salaries still hovers around $35,000 to $45,000. That suggests there’s still strong upward mobility within this role in most cities. However, there are no cities where that gap drops to just $22,000 anymore. That trend may have disappeared as DevOps roles matured and compensation structures improved.
The low end is still high. The lowest low-end salary in the dataset is $126,000 in Brownsville, TX — which is far from the previous outliers like Bayamón, PR ($59,000). The highest low-end salary is now in San Francisco, CA at $184,000.
This means even "low-paid" DevOps managers in high-cost cities are making six figures, and most “low-end” salaries in mid-tier markets would have been considered high-end just a few years ago.
So, where's the high end? At the top end, San Francisco also leads with a high-end average of $228,000, followed closely by New York, Paterson, and Los Angeles. These are large, expensive cities where salaries must keep pace with the cost of living.
The lowest high-end salary is again in Brownsville, TX, at $158,000, which is still quite generous by national standards.
4 Salary Considerations for a DevOps Manager
If you do any work with DevOps, you know that getting it right can be messy and confusing. DevOps managers who want to earn the best salaries must be ready to make that chore less complicated and more profitable. A lot goes into getting that right.
For new DevOps managers who want to land their first gig or existing DevOps managers who wish to justify a better salary, there are four things to consider: experience in development and operations, expertise with DevOps tools, applicable certifications, and choosing the right business industry.
Experience Requirements for DevOps Managers
While specific experience requirements vary by company, top-paying DevOps manager roles consistently go to those with expertise in three key areas: software development, IT operations, and team leadership.
DevOps managers aren’t just coordinators—they’re problem-solvers who guide teams toward ambitious goals. The most effective ones draw on hands-on development experience to understand and remove obstacles for their dev teams. At the same time, they need a solid grasp of IT operations to understand infrastructure constraints and opportunities.
In many ways, DevOps managers are bilingual—they speak both dev and ops fluently and act as translators between teams.
But technical knowledge isn’t enough. What sets high-earning DevOps managers apart is their soft skills: strong communication, cross-team collaboration, and the ability to report accurately to senior leadership. Experience managing relationships, navigating corporate structure, handling compliance requirements, and overseeing teams will all help boost your value—and your paycheck.
4 Categories of Tools that DevOps Managers Need to Know
DevOps is built on tools, but no one can learn them all. Hundreds of platforms cover every phase of the DevOps lifecycle, and new ones emerge constantly. That’s why smart DevOps managers focus less on memorizing names and more on understanding categories and workflows.
Here are the four main types of tools DevOps managers need to understand—plus how each affects your salary potential.
DevOps Tools for Planning and Coding
These tools support backlog management, collaboration, and source control. Jira, Confluence, Git, and GitHub are staples. Mastering this category gives you insight into how work is planned, tracked, and executed— crucial for managing development teams.
Salary Impact: High. This is where everything starts, and poor planning leads to delays and rework later in the pipeline.
Verifying and Testing Tools Used in DevOps
Automated testing ensures code quality. Managers don’t need to write tests, but they must understand tools like Selenium, Cypress, and Playwright, plus CI services like GitHub Actions or Jenkins that run these tests automatically.
Salary Impact: Significant. Knowing how to interpret test results and enforce quality gates directly improves release velocity and system stability.
DevOps Tools for Releasing and Deploying
Releasing code isn’t just hitting “deploy.” It includes containerization (Docker), orchestration (Kubernetes, Argo CD), and deployment automation (Octopus, AWS CodeDeploy). Each company’s pipeline will look different, so adaptability is key.
Salary Impact: High. These tools are harder to standardize, so managers who can flex between platforms bring serious value.
Configuring, Operating, and Monitoring Tools for DevOps
This category closes the loop with tools that collect performance data and keep apps running. Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, Datadog, and Terraform are go-to tools. Today, “monitoring” means full observability—logs, traces, and metrics together.
Salary Impact: Huge. Without insight into performance and uptime, DevOps becomes guesswork. Managers fluent in observability lead more effective teams.
Top 3 Certifications for DevOps Managers
Like anyone else in the IT industry, a DevOps manager can leapfrog their career by earning the right certifications. Strong correlations exist between industry certifications and increased salaries. The difficulty for a DevOps manager is in choosing the right ones. Unlike network engineers or software developers, a DevOps manager's tools, hardware, and software aren’t always well-defined.
That said, there are some DevOps certifications that most managers should consider to qualify for higher salaries.
Red Hat Ansible Certification Program
Ansible is a Red Hat product, and its certification program features seven courses on implementing automation software under different circumstances. This is worthwhile if your team uses Ansible for automation and config management. However, many orgs are moving to Terraform or Kubernetes-native tools.
Salary impact of the Red Hat Ansible certification program: Moderate. If your team doesn’t use Ansible, the cert may not offer much return. But if you’re managing teams that do, demonstrating your expertise can help justify a higher salary— especially in network automation environments.
Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert
This certification depends on a team already relying on Azure. However, for DevOps managers working with administration and development teams that rely on Azure, all Microsoft DevOps certifications can help illustrate the approaches to collaboration, code, source control, compliance, and continuous integration.
Salary impact of Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert: Considerable. Azure DevOps is widely used in enterprise environments. If your team works with Azure, this certification demonstrates that you understand how to build, deploy, and manage secure and scalable DevOps pipelines—skills that definitely raise your value.
AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional
The AWS Certified DevOps Engineer—Professional covers every use case for a DevOps team within the AWS ecosystem of tools, apps, and services. As if that’s not enough, the certifying exam also tests for quite a lot of knowledge of DevOps principles. However, a DevOps manager with this certification is a tried-and-tested expert for teams that use any of AWS' tools or services.
The salary impact of an AWS Certified DevOps Engineer—Professional: Significant. For DevOps managers working in AWS-heavy environments, this cert is a clear signal of expertise and leadership readiness. It’s challenging, but it’s also one of the most respected DevOps certs in the industry.
What Type of Companies Need DevOps Managers?
While software development companies are the most obvious employers of DevOps managers, they’re far from the only ones. Today, industries like finance, insurance, retail, logistics, and even national restaurant chains are investing heavily in DevOps leadership to modernize their operations and stay competitive.
Software Development
This is the birthplace of DevOps—and still the most natural fit for a DevOps manager. Any software company worth its codebase has already adopted DevOps practices or is working toward them. That’s good news for DevOps managers: no need to convince anyone of DevOps’s value. But it also means high competition for the best roles.
Career impact: Massive. The upside is enormous. Companies are always looking for experienced DevOps leaders who can improve deployment velocity, reduce downtime, and lead automation efforts. If you want to build a long-term, high-paying career in DevOps, this is the sector to watch.
Financial and Insurance Institutions
Large banks and insurance firms are increasingly building proprietary tools for risk modeling, transaction processing, customer portals, and compliance. These organizations are embracing DevOps to speed up software development while maintaining reliability and security.
Career impact: Considerable. The demand is real—but expectations can be messy. Some companies are still figuring out what DevOps means in their context. If you're a newer manager, be cautious about roles that expect overnight transformation with no budget or buy-in.
National Restaurant Chains
It might not seem obvious, but many restaurant chains now run internal tech teams to manage supply chain logistics, digital ordering, POS integrations, and customer loyalty apps. These systems must scale reliably and integrate with dozens (or hundreds) of locations— making DevOps essential.
Career impact: Moderate to Considerable. These roles can offer great opportunities to lead change in a less traditional environment. But clarity is key—some companies are just beginning their DevOps journey and may not have realistic expectations for what a DevOps manager can do without time and resources.
How to Increase Your Salary as a DevOps Manager
A good DevOps manager is an excellent addition to any company trying to improve a software deliverable. Many options are available for IT professionals who want to land their first gig as a DevOps manager or for DevOps managers who wish to improve their salary prospects.
The best bet is to foster and maintain a curious mindset about every piece of technology and software that could improve the continuous improvement and delivery of your company’s product and development pipeline. After that, choosing specific DevOps tools and skills to strengthen and deliberately pursue training and certification for them is a sure-fire bet to gaining prominence and higher salaries.
Ready to increase your salary? Learn DevOps with CBT Nuggets.
delivered to your inbox.
By submitting this form you agree to receive marketing emails from CBT Nuggets and that you have read, understood and are able to consent to our privacy policy.