PORTLAND, Ore., March 8, 2021 -- Puppet, the industry standard for infrastructure automation, today revealed the findings of its 2020 DevOps Salary Report. For this report, Puppet surveyed more than 2,200 technology professionals globally and found that salaries increased across every region, despite widespread economic slowdowns and cross-industry layoffs. 

Many organizations have accelerated their digital transformation initiatives by as much as three or four years during the pandemic, according to a late-2020 survey by McKinsey & Co. This phenomenon translated into higher salaries across industries, among both IT and engineering practitioners and managers. The report also found that organizations that have already reached a higher level of DevOps evolution compensate their employees at a higher rate than those whose DevOps evolution is less advanced. Among respondents working at companies with highly evolved DevOps practices, 80 percent earn at least $75,000 per year while only 57 percent of respondents at companies with less evolved DevOps practices earn that much. 

“The pandemic brought into sharp relief the necessity of digital transformation and thereby the value of the skilled practitioners and managers who make that evolution possible,” said Alanna Brown, co-author of the State of DevOps Report. “We're seeing higher compensation as a result of the increase in demand for these skills, with the most dramatic rise in salaries for engineers and practitioners working within the life sciences, pharmaceuticals and healthcare industries who, for the first time, are earning more than their counterparts in tech and financial services." 

Key findings revealed in the DevOps Salary Report also include:

• With the rise of platform teams, platform engineers have quickly become the best-paid job title. According to Gartner, platform teams are here to stay, with the majority of large organizations adopting a platform team strategy to scale DevOps by 2025. This rise of platform teams is reflected in salaries, with platform engineers the most likely to earn more than $150,000 per year. They are also the most likely to earn over $100,000 and over $75,000.
  • Respondents working in life sciences, pharmaceuticals and healthcare (LSPH) were the top earners worldwide. In previous years, practitioners and managers in the financial services and technology spaces were the top earners. In fact, 64 percent of LSPH respondents earn more than $100,000. Behind LSPH was the financial services industry where 53 percent of respondents earned over $100,000, while those at technology companies trailed at 45 percent. 
• More women earn mid-range salaries than men, but men still earn more of the top salaries than women. 25 percent of female respondents earn between $100,000 and $125,000, while 18 percent of male respondents are earning in the same range. However, fewer women earn above $125,000 women compared to their male counterparts.
  • For instance, twelve percent of men who answered the survey earn $125,000 to $150,000, compared to nine percent of women. Additionally, three percent of men earn over $250,000 per year compared to just one percent of women.
• Salaries rose worldwide and rose most steeply for upper-income respondents in Japan and the United Kingdom. Japanese respondents saw the steepest gains in salaries, with 67 percent of respondents moving into the $75,000-plus range, compared with only 24 percent last year. The next-biggest increase in those earning $75,000 or more was in the United Kingdom, where 74 percent reported being in this salary bracket, up from 57 percent in 2019. U.S. respondents continue to earn more compared to their global peers, with 84 percent making $100,000 or more, and 42 percent earning over $150,000 per year.

Puppet’s sixth annual DevOps Salary Report, which includes a more extensive look at the data, is available for download here. 

Additional Resources

• Learn more about Puppet
• Follow Puppet on Twitter and LinkedIn
• Read our blog

About Puppet

Puppet makes infrastructure actionable, scalable and intelligent. From the data centre to the cloud, Puppet helps enterprises modernize and manage their infrastructure to deliver innovation and efficiency through continuous automation. More than 40,000 organizations — including more than 80 percent of the Global 5000 — have benefited from Puppet’s open source and commercial solutions to ensure business continuity, optimize costs, boost compliance and ensure security — all while accelerating the adoption of DevOps practices and delivery of self-service. Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, Puppet is a privately held company with offices in London, Belfast, Singapore, and Sydney. Learn more at puppet.com.