Site Reliability Engineer Salary Guide 2025

Site reliability engineering (SRE) is a specialization on which companies rely to keep their infrastructure moving so their workflow can operate smoothly. SREs are in high demand because they remove bottlenecks, ensure software reliability, solve complex problems, and bridge the gap between development and operations in an organization.   

Learn more about the SRE role, the educational requirements, the salary range, and career advancement opportunities.

What is a site reliability engineer?

Site reliability engineers use software to address IT issues and keep systems running smoothly. More specifically, these individuals use expertise in information engineering to address IT infrastructure and operations issues to craft secure “information structures” in organizations.

SREs are valuable to businesses because they keep systems operational and updated. As an SRE, you’ll keep workflow moving by examining request latency, availability, error rates, system throughput, and reliability and then determining what new features to launch to address these issues. Site reliability engineers work on project tasks and operations tasks. 

You'll work on automation as a site reliability engineer to minimise service interruptions and ensure efficiency across all systems. Additionally, you'll oversee systems performance, incidents, and outages and be responsible for front-end and back-end systems.

How much does the average site reliability engineer make?

According to the Government of Canada’s Job Bank, site reliability engineers earn a median hourly wage of $53.85 CAD, which comes out to $112,008 CAD annually [1]. However, the median annual salary may range from $69,597 CAD to $176,010 CAD depending on various factors.

Other leading salary websites give a similar salary range for site reliability engineers. Here’s how they break down: 

All salary data current as of December 2024

Factors affecting salary

As an SRE, your salary can vary for many reasons, including experience, location, skills, and education.

Level of experience 

Your years of experience can significantly influence your earning potential. Payscale lists the following average annual total salaries for SREs in Canada by years of experience [2]: 

• Up to one year of experience: $79,090 CAD

• 1–4 years of experience: $94,363 CAD

• 5–9 years of experience: $103,158 CAD

• 10–19 years of experience: $116,343 CAD

• 20 or more years of experience: $116,418 CAD

Location

Your SRE salary can also vary by location because each province has a different cost of living. The areas that typically offer greater wages are major cities with higher living expenses. Here’s a look at the median annual salaries for different provinces in Canada [1]:

• British Columbia: $125,008 CAD

• Alberta: $107,994 CAD

• Saskatchewan: $93,600 CAD

• Manitoba: $38.46 CAD

• Ontario: $113,006 CAD

• Quebec: $109,990 CAD

• Nova Scotia: $89,253 CAD

Skill set 

The general skills necessary for your SRE career include programming and computer languages. You should also possess strong communication, problem-solving, collaboration, and teamwork skills. Technical skills include using version control and monitoring tools, distributed computing, and strong operating systems knowledge and coding abilities. 

SRE skills that can increase your salary include [2]:

• Microsoft Azure: 13 per cent increase in pay

• Kubernetes: 10 per cent increase in pay

• Development Operations (DevOps): 6 per cent increase in pay

• Amazon Web Services (AWS): 3 per cent increase in pay

Education 

Most employers seek candidates with a bachelor’s degree in computer science or a related field, according to Job Bank Canada. Some might also require a master’s degree or specialized skills in a certain discipline. Knowledge of programming languages and operating systems is attractive to have on your resume.

While pursuing a bachelor’s degree, consider pursuing an internship to earn and enhance experience for an entry-level position. Boosting education by attending boot camps and earning certificates related to SRE work is beneficial to obtaining a job as an SRE.

Where can a site reliability engineer work? 

You can typically find SRE positions nationwide, and many large corporations hire onsite and remote SREs. Remote work may offer the flexibility to earn greater compensation working for a large company while living in a lower-cost city. Some types of companies that commonly hire site reliability engineers include tech companies, government agencies, e-commerce platforms, financial institutions, and telecommunication companies.

Career advancements and outlook

Pursuing a graduate degree or certification is a good start when seeking to advance an SRE career. Earning additional degrees or certifications can also increase opportunities to manage junior SREs or transition to closely related fields, including software engineering or DevOps engineering. 

In fact, the field of site reliability engineering is expected to grow over the next three years as digital and tech businesses grow. According to Job Bank Canada, many provinces will experience moderate or good job growth in this field. However, over the next 10 years, there is expected to be a job shortage, with new job seekers outpacing new job openings between 2022 and 2031 [3]. 

Tips for negotiating your salary as a site reliability engineer 

When a company offers you an SRE job, consider how to negotiate your salary. Research salary ranges before accepting any offers to ensure fair pay based on your qualifications, location, job title, and more. 

Your potential employer will typically make the first offer. You then can negotiate based on what you feel you are worth as an employee. Note that a compensation package often includes components other than just the salary, which you can include in the negotiation process. If you want employer-paid parking or other similar perks, for instance, you can loop these benefits into your overall compensation.

When negotiating, point out your unique abilities and experience, technical and workplace skills, and how you can help the company meet its stated goals. 

Next steps for your site reliability engineer career

With this valuable knowledge of SRE salary based on experience levels, regional salary variations, in-demand SRE skills, and educational level, you can make more informed career decisions and secure a competitive salary in this fast-growing and ever-evolving field. 

To become an SRE, your next step is to earn a credential; then, you can expand your knowledge and advance in your career as an SRE with certificate programs. Consider taking Google Cloud's Site Reliability Engineering: Measuring and Managing Reliability course on Coursera, which explores the field of SRE and can build upon your existing knowledge and skills. You might also consider Developing a Google SRE Culture offered by Google Cloud, which you can complete remotely in about seven hours and covers how Google allies the objectives of development and operations teams. 

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