Kubernetes salary: $215K median
From 1,714 open roles that publish a yearly US-dollar range. Advertised ranges, not verified pay.
$215Kmedian advertised salary
$182K – $250Kmiddle half of roles
$223Kaverage advertised salary
1,714roles counted
Kubernetes salary by level
Lead roles advertise a median of $249K, 21% more than senior roles ($205K). The level comes from the job title; titles without a level word are counted separately.
| Level | Median salary | Middle half | Roles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senior | $205K | $184K–$223K | 618 |
| Lead and above | $249K | $223K–$276K | 458 |
| No level in title | $200K | $150K–$248K | 632 |
Kubernetes salary by location
| Name | Median salary | Roles counted |
|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸San Francisco Bay Area | $232K | 743 |
| 🇺🇸California | $223K | 873 |
| 🇺🇸United States | $215K | 1,610 |
| 🇺🇸New York | $215K | 276 |
| 🇪🇺Europe | $215K | 18 |
| 🇺🇸Chicago | $215K | 32 |
| 🇺🇸Austin | $214K | 22 |
| 🇺🇸Washington, DC | $212K | 55 |
| 🇺🇸Seattle | $212K | 197 |
| 🇨🇦Canada | $207K | 22 |
| 🇺🇸Texas | $194K | 40 |
| 🇺🇸Boston | $184K | 34 |
| 🇺🇸Dallas | $178K | 15 |
| 🇺🇸Denver | $176K | 27 |
| 🇺🇸Atlanta | $175K | 17 |
| 🇺🇸Los Angeles | $144K | 64 |
Top-paying companies
| Name | Median salary | Roles counted |
|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | $425K | 38 |
| OpenAI | $356K | 42 |
| Garner Health | $334K | 7 |
| Lambda | $330K | 26 |
| Mercor | $330K | 5 |
| Suno | $320K | 4 |
| Inworld AI | $315K | 3 |
| Character.AI | $312K | 5 |
| Perplexity | $312K | 12 |
| Sierra | $310K | 3 |
| Decagon | $300K | 5 |
| Sentry | $295K | 7 |
| Replit | $288K | 9 |
| Harvey | $286K | 13 |
| Apollo.io | $274K | 5 |
| $271K | 3 | |
| Roblox | $269K | 31 |
| Linear | $261K | 3 |
| Affirm | $260K | 23 |
| $260K | 25 | |
| Ironclad | $258K | 3 |
| SambaNova | $258K | 8 |
| Block | $256K | 5 |
| Invisible Technologies | $255K | 3 |
| Rubrik | $254K | 5 |
Highest-paying open Kubernetes roles
All Kubernetes jobs- Research Engineer, DiscoveryAnthropic · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA$350K - $850KDockerGCPPyTorch
- Research Engineer, Machine Learning (Reinforcement Learning)Anthropic · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY$500K - $850KRustPythonC++
- Software Engineer - Data Aquisition (systems)OpenAI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$295K - $536KLinuxCI/CDKubernetes
- Principal Security Engineer, Infrastructure SecurityOpenAI · 🇺🇸US - Remote$401K - $510KRemoteLeadAzureCI/CDKubernetes
- Principal Product Manager - ConsoleLambda · Bellevue Office$338K - $500KLeadMachine LearningKubernetes
- Principal Engineer, Big Data PlatformPinterest · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA, US; Remote, US$243K - $500KRemoteLeadGoPythonJava
- Infrastructure Software EngineerMercor · 🇺🇸San Francisco$160K - $500KGoPythonPostgreSQL
- Software Engineer, AgentsMercor · 🇺🇸San Francisco$160K - $500KPythonTypeScriptReact
- Member of Technical Staff (AI Inference Engineer)Perplexity · 🇺🇸San Francisco$220K - $485KRustPythonLLM
- Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, GPU Cluster Infrastructure)Perplexity · 🇺🇸San Francisco$250K - $485KRustGoC++
- Staff Software Engineer - Infrastructure StorageLambda · 🇺🇸San Francisco Office (Fremont St)$314K - $465KLeadRustC++Machine Learning
- Director, Capacity Planning & EngineeringRoblox · 🇺🇸San Mateo, CA, United States$399K - $458KLeadKubernetes
- Principal Machine Learning Engineer (AI/Platform)- League of LegendsRiot Games · 🇺🇸Los Angeles, USA$292K - $438KLeadMachine LearningKubernetesAI
- Staff / Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Inference - USAInworld AI · 🇺🇸Mountain View, California, USA$270K - $430KLeadRustPythonC++
- Product Engineer, Personal AIRiver AI Inc. · 🇺🇸Palo Alto, CA$200K - $420KRustPythonTypeScript
- Staff Software Engineer (Hybrid, San Francisco)Apollo.io · 🇺🇸Hybrid, San Francisco$315K - $415KLeadPythonReactRuby
- Forward Deployed Engineer, InferenceCohere · 🇺🇸United States$240K - $415KGoPythonC++
- Senior Director, Global SME Solutions ArchitectureGitLab · 🇺🇸Remote, United States$244K - $410KRemoteLeadGCPAzureLLM
- Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer, GenAI PlatformReddit · 🇺🇸Remote - United States$292K - $410KRemoteLeadGoPythonTerraform
- Senior Staff Machine Learning Systems Engineer, Ads ML PlatformReddit · 🇺🇸Remote - United States$292K - $410KRemoteLeadMachine LearningKafkaAirflow
Questions about Kubernetes pay
- What is the average Kubernetes salary?
- $223K a year on average and $215K at the median, across 1,714 open Kubernetes postings at tech 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 $182K to $250K a year. A quarter offer less and a quarter offer more.
- Which companies advertise the highest Kubernetes pay?
- Anthropic ($425K), OpenAI ($356K), Garner Health ($334K), by the median of their open postings that state pay (three postings or more).
- 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 Kubernetes roles at tech companies is $215K a year, and the middle half of postings offer $182K to $250K. Counted from 1,714 open job postings that state pay, November 2026. Source: Hiring Right Now, https://jobseveryhour.com/salaries/kubernetes/
Free to use with the link.