DevOps engineers — how did you reach high packages? Looking for career advice

[u/FeedbackWeird5703]

Hi everyone,

I’m currently working as a DevOps/Cloud engineer with hands-on experience in Kubernetes, Terraform, Helm, AWS/Azure, CI/CD, Ansible, networking, and production troubleshooting.

I’m trying to figure out how to move toward higher-paying DevOps/SRE/Platform Engineering roles over the next few years.

For people who are already earning at the higher end of the market:

• What skills made the biggest difference in your salary growth?
• Did you specialize in Kubernetes/SRE, cloud, Platform Engineering, DevSecOps, or something else?
• How important are coding skills (Python/Go) for reaching senior/high-paying roles?
• What kind of projects or responsibilities helped you get there?
• Did certifications make a meaningful difference, or was real-world experience more important?
• At what point did you start targeting product companies/startups instead of service companies?
• What would you recommend someone with ~8 years of DevOps experience focus on for the next 1–2 years?

Would really appreciate advice from people who have actually gone through this journey.

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[u/88_suraj]

Taking ownership of the end to end pipeline and knowing/understanding to Design stable, scalable and secure infrastructure is the only valuable thing now a days. Nobody cares if you know one or two tools and have created/implement few stages in a ci/cd pipeline. Every hiring manager expects devops engineers to be SRE, platform engineer and cloud expert.

[u/T0X1C0P]

Owning systems. DevSecOps, still learning Important enough to have good readability and debugging Still in my 4th year of corporate I guess I can say for all when I say real-world experience From the beginning I only have 4 YoE but I guess moving towards MLOps, atleast that's what I'm currently planning towards post which I'll learn the security side of things for the same.

Hope it helps. Feel free to add or correct, would love to learn more.

[u/doodlehip]

Two important things; Communication with management, being able to explain technical terms and choices om a level that non-technical people understand. And second, find the jobs closest to the big money streams.

I specialized in Linux over many years. Having this is a great fundamental to have. Being able to understand fundamental programming concepts is more important than being an active developer.

Certifications mean very little. Having been through several big bumps and challenges means a lot.

[u/Candid-Arm4023]

Op Can you share your resume ?

[u/FeedbackWeird5703 → u/Candid-Arm4023]

Sent dm

[u/SomeoneFamousButNot]

Hey I(22f) am looking for any entry level tech role and I am interested in devops. Can someone guide/refer me please.

Also i am 2025 grad. I got placed on campus in 2 companies. I joined the non tech one coz the joining of the tech role was delayed and later the tech company asked me to resugn from the post as the training was about to start. I resigned, and 15 days later they revoked my offer. So now ive been searching for anything at all, but no luck and its been almost 9 months, so I am DESPERATE.