Platform engineers are commanding $172K-$207K in 2026, a 13-27% premium over DevOps roles. This episode breaks down salary benchmarks from Dice, Motion Recruitment, and Levels.fyi, revealing which skills are S-tier ($200K+) and which are table stakes.
We cover:
- Platform Engineer vs DevOps salary gap (13-27% premium)
- S-tier skills: LLM/GenAI ($195K-$312K), Platform Engineering, DevSecOps, MLOps
- A-tier skills: Kubernetes + CKA, Go/Golang, FinOps, OpenTelemetry
- Entry-level hiring crisis (-25% to -50% at major tech)
- Geographic salary shifts: Atlanta +13.9%, Silicon Valley -7.3%
- Top certification ROI: CKA, CNPE, FinOps Practitioner
Listen for actionable recommendations on which skills to prioritize in 2026 based on your current career level.
Episode page: https://platformengineering.org/podcasts/00072-platform-engineering-salary-skills-2026
