Technology · Wales
DevOps Engineer salary in Cardiff, 2026
Source: ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, 2025, adjusted for the Wales regional pay differential. Updated 2026-04-21. Methodology.
DevOps Engineer salary by experience in Cardiff
That headline median masks a wide spread once you split Cardiff devops engineers by years of experience. The four bands below reflect what each tier typically commands in Cardiff — local figures, not UK averages, with each step usually triggered by a level change rather than an annual increment.
| Experience level | Salary range | Median |
|---|---|---|
| Entry (0-2 yrs) | £32,490 – £41,515 | £37,003 |
| Mid (3-5 yrs) | £46,835 – £60,610 | £53,723 |
| Senior (6-10 yrs) | £89,775 – £114,712 | £102,244 |
| Lead (10+ yrs) | £118,453 – £162,094 | £140,274 |
Gross figures only tell half the story — what actually lands in your bank account depends on tax, NI, student loan and pension. Run your own number below.
Take-home pay calculator · 2024/25
DevOps Engineer, Cardiff
£40,918/yr · £787/wk · effective rate 25.7%
| Gross salary | £55,100 |
| Pension (5%) | −£2,755 |
| Income tax | −£8,370 |
| National Insurance | −£3,058 |
| Net take-home | £40,918 |
Earn more as a DevOps Engineer
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Pay ranges and take-home are the planning numbers; what you can actually move into right now is a different question. Live devops engineer vacancies in Cardiff are below.
Open vacancies · via Reed
9 live DevOps Engineer jobs in Cardiff
Live listings refresh daily. View the full set on Reed.
See all DevOps Engineer jobs in Cardiff →It's also worth seeing how Cardiff stacks up — both against the UK average and against other cities devops engineers commonly relocate between.
DevOps Engineer pay: Cardiff versus UK average
DevOps Engineer pay across other UK cities
What separates a £38K developer from a £105K one in Cardiff
Beyond the headline numbers, the more useful question for engineers is what actually drives pay between bands.
The pay gap between a junior and a staff-level DevOps Engineer in Cardiff is essentially a gap in ownership. Juniors implement; mid-level engineers own a feature; seniors own a system; staff engineers shape what the team builds and why. The salary curve mirrors that — entry roles cluster around £36,100, mid-level pay lands close to the £55,100 median, and the upper quartile (£74,100) is where engineers sit who can be trusted to scope and lead a quarter of work without a manager rewriting it.
Three things move salary fastest in Cardiff: depth in AWS or Kubernetes that's hard to hire for, a track record of shipping production systems (not side projects), and being credibly able to mentor others. Total comp matters too — the larger London-headquartered tech employers (and US firms with a Cardiff office) increasingly pay 15–30% of base in equity or RSUs, which doesn't show up in ONS figures. If you're benchmarking offers, ask for total comp, not just base.
DevOps Engineer salaries in cities near Cardiff
If Cardiff doesn't quite work for the role — commute, rent, partner's job — the same role in nearby cities tells you what the trade-off looks like in £ terms. The four comparisons below show how pay shifts within the same region — multipliers come from the ONS regional median pay differential, so the figures already account for the regional gap.
Other technology jobs in Cardiff
Adjacent technology roles often pay differently to devops engineer for similar skill profiles, which is useful when you're choosing what to specialise in next. Salaries for closely related technology roles in Cardiff are below — useful when comparing routes into or out of the DevOps Engineer track.
Roles with overlapping skills
Common questions about devops engineer pay in Cardiff, answered with the underlying figures from the same dataset used above.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average DevOps Engineer salary in Cardiff?
£55,100 per year is the median DevOps Engineer salary in Cardiff, drawn from ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings data adjusted for the regional pay differential. Lower quartile sits at £41,800; upper quartile at £74,100.
How much does a DevOps Engineer earn per month in Cardiff?
About £4,592 gross, which works out at roughly £3,306 take-home after income tax and National Insurance for the 2024/25 tax year (assuming no student loan and a 5% pension contribution). Use the calculator above for a number that matches your own circumstances.
What is the starting salary for a DevOps Engineer in Cardiff?
Entry-level DevOps Engineers in Cardiff typically start between £32,490 and £41,515. Pay then steps up at the 3-year and 6-year marks — mid-level practitioners earn £46,835–£60,610, with senior roles reaching £89,775–£114,712.
Is Cardiff a good place to work as a DevOps Engineer?
It depends on what you weight more heavily — pay, cost of living or commute. Cardiff pays 5% below the UK DevOps Engineer median, with major local employers including Admiral Group, BBC Wales, Principality. Cost of living runs at 81 on the UK-100 index, so £55,100 here has the real purchasing power of £68,025 at the national average. Unemployment of 4.3% gives a useful read on how tight the local labour market is — under 4% generally favours candidates on pay.
What skills do DevOps Engineers need to earn more?
Reaching the upper-quartile £74,100 band tends to come down to depth in AWS, Kubernetes, Terraform, plus a track record that lets you credibly take on senior or lead-level scope. Career outlook for the role is high, so the speciality areas worth doubling down on are CI/CD and Linux.
Salary base figures: ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (2025), with regional adjustment from ONS regional median gross pay tables. Live job counts (where shown): Reed Jobseeker API, refreshed daily. Take-home calculations apply 2024/25 UK tax-year thresholds for England, Wales and Northern Ireland.