CKA salary: $193K median
The median advertised CKA salary is $193K a year, and the middle half of postings offer $160K to $212K: counted from 40 open roles that publish a yearly US-dollar range: about $93 an hour or $16,083 a month. A tenth of the postings offer $247K or more. Advertised ranges, not verified pay.
Check an offer against these figuresAll CKA jobs
$193Kmedian advertised salary
$160K – $212Kmiddle half of roles
$192Kaverage advertised salary
40roles counted
Skills that pay more for CKA roles
| Skill | Median with it | Above the median | Postings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Network engineering | $214K | +$21K | 5 |
| MLOps | $214K | +$21K | 5 |
| Cloud security | $214K | +$21K | 7 |
| Zero trust | $212K | +$20K | 5 |
| LLM | $212K | +$20K | 7 |
Top-paying companies
| Name | Median salary | Roles counted |
|---|---|---|
| CoreWeave | $212K | 4 |
| Crusoe | $200K | 3 |
| Dark Wolf Solutions | $182K | 11 |
Highest-paying open CKA roles
All CKA jobs- Staff Security EngineerMixpanel · 🇺🇸San Francisco$274K - $342KLead and aboveTerraformGCPLLM
- Cloud Security EngineerHex · 🇺🇸Remote - US$199K - $295KRemotePythonTypeScriptReact
- AI Lead Software Architect - SMEDark Wolf Solutions · 🇺🇸Chantilly/Herndon, VA$225K - $285KLead and aboveRustPythonJava
- Forward Deployed Engineering, PortworxPure Storage · 🇺🇸Bellevue, Washington; Chicago, Illinois; New York, New Yo…$230K - $282KLinuxCI/CDKubernetes
- Staff Software Engineer- AI Workload OrchestrationCoreWeave · 🇺🇸Sunnyvale, CA / Bellevue, WA$188K - $275KLead and aboveGoKubernetesAI
- Software Integration Engineer 3 (On-Call) - Linux/Bash/Python/Docker/Kubernetes/Helm/Grafana/JiraCaptivation Software · 🇺🇸Annapolis Junction, MD$130K - $270KPythonDockerLinux
- Software Integration Engineer 4 - Linux/Bash/Python/Docker/Kubernetes/HelmCaptivation Software · 🇺🇸Annapolis Junction, MD$130K - $270KPythonDockerFastAPI
- Senior Management, Platform & Infrastructure AuditOKX · 🇺🇸San Jose, California, United States$171K - $257KSeniorDockerTerraformGCP
- Senior Management, Platform & Infrastructure AuditOKX · 🇺🇸San Jose, California, United States$171K - $257KSeniorDockerTerraformGCP
- Senior Manager, Customer SupportCrusoe · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA - US$205K - $250KSeniorMachine LearningLLMLinux
- Senior Software Engineer, PlatformAstronomer · 🇺🇸New York City$210K - $250KHybridSeniorGoPythonGCP
- Senior Software Engineer II (IC4) – AI Workload OrchestrationCoreWeave · 🇺🇸Sunnyvale, CA / Bellevue, WA$182K - $242KSeniorPythonC++Kubernetes
- AI Software Engineer - SMEDark Wolf Solutions · 🇺🇸Chantilly/Herndon, VA$185K - $240KGoPythonC++
- Cloud Security EngineerApplied · 🇺🇸Sunnyvale$133K - $230KGoPythonC++
- DevSecOps Engineer - Physical AIApplied · 🇺🇸Washington, D.C.$160K - $225KGoPythonDocker
- Staff Cloud Support EngineerCrusoe · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA - US$180K - $220KLead and aboveTerraformLinuxKubernetes
- Senior Field EngineerGoteleport · 🇺🇸United States (Remote)$174K - $212KRemoteSeniorGCPAzureLinux
- Senior Technical Account ManagerGoteleport · 🇺🇸United States (Remote)$174K - $212KRemoteSeniorGCPAzureLinux
- Software Engineering Manager, Managed Gateways SREsKong · 🇺🇸Washington, United States$190K - $211KRemoteGoGCPAzure
- Senior Partner Solutions Architect – GSIWiz · 🇺🇸Remote - USA$190K - $211KRemoteSeniorTerraformGCPAzure
Questions about CKA pay
- What is the average CKA salary?
- $192K a year on average and $193K at the median, across 40 open CKA postings at companies that state pay (November 2026). The median is the better guide: a few very high offers pull the average up.
- What is the typical range?
- The middle half of the postings offer $160K to $212K a year. A quarter offer less and a quarter offer more.
- Which companies advertise the highest CKA pay?
- CoreWeave ($212K), Crusoe ($200K), Dark Wolf Solutions ($182K), by the median of their open postings that state pay (three postings or more).
- Is a cka a high-paying job?
- The median CKA posting advertises $193K a year, more than the median of all 55,899 job postings with pay on Jobs Every Hour ($174K). That is 11% above the middle of the market.
- How much can you earn as a cka?
- A tenth of the postings offer $247K a year or more; the highest open CKA role advertises up to $342K. Pay rises with level: see the table by level.
- What is the CKA salary per hour and per month?
- The median of $193K a year is about $93 an hour (2,080 working hours) and $16,083 a month before tax. The middle half of postings: $77 to $102 an hour.
- Which skills pay more for CKA roles?
- Postings that ask for Network engineering (+$21K, 5 postings), MLOps (+$21K, 5 postings), Cloud security (+$21K, 7 postings) advertise more than the $193K median of all CKA postings with pay.
- Where do these figures come from?
- From the pay ranges employers print in their own job postings, read from their careers pages every hour. The midpoint of each range is counted. These are advertised ranges for open roles, mostly in the United States and in US dollars, not what people are actually paid.
Writing about this? A sentence you can quote
The median advertised salary for CKA roles at companies is $193K a year, and the middle half of postings offer $160K to $212K. Counted from 40 open job postings that state pay, November 2026. Source: Jobs Every Hour, https://jobseveryhour.com/salaries/cka/
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