Kubernetes salary: what jobs that ask for it advertise
Postings that list Kubernetes advertise a median $206,000 (2,444 paid postings from 680 employers), against $165,000 for other postings that list skills. Matched on function, level and industry the gap is +7.7%, about $15k a year.
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By Justin KullaLast updated
Kubernetes pay range
From 2,444 paid postings from 680 employers that list it. Annual, in US dollars.
- Lower quarter
- $175,000
- Median
- $206,000
- Upper quarter
- $243,000
- Median without it
- $165,000
- Raw gap: +24.8%. This includes the seniority and field of the roles that list the skill.
- Gap with function, level and industry matched: +7.7% (about $15k a year), across 2,055 postings in 26 comparison cells.
Where Kubernetes is asked for
The functions with the most postings that list it.
Other skills that pay well in Engineering
Skills with the highest median pay in the same function.
Questions about this data
- How much do jobs that ask for Kubernetes pay?
- $175,000 to $243,000 for the middle half, median $206,000, from 2,444 paid postings from 680 employers. Other postings that list skills advertise a median $165,000.
- Does Kubernetes increase pay?
- Matched on function, level and industry, postings that list Kubernetes advertise +7.7% (about $15k a year) more than similar postings that do not. That is a difference in advertised pay between postings, not proof that learning the skill raises a salary.
- Which jobs list Kubernetes most?
- Engineering (1,676 postings), Data & Analytics (377 postings), Security (244 postings).
Method, download and how to cite
Data as of November 3, 2026. Rebuilt daily.
Pay is the midpoint of the range an employer posted (or stated in the posting text), converted to a year, on live U.S. professional jobs. It is advertised pay, not what anyone is paid.
A “gap, job mix matched” compares postings inside cells of the same function, level and industry, so a group is not credited for simply holding more senior or better-paid roles. It needs 150 or more postings across at least 5 cells with 15 postings on each side, and is shown as n/a otherwise. A gap is a difference in advertised pay between postings. It does not show that a skill, an industry or an employer size causes higher pay.
Download the CSV (aggregates only; no posting, employer or person is in it). Cite as: NextChapter, “Advertised pay in U.S. job postings that list Kubernetes”, data as of November 3, 2026, https://launchyournextchapter.com/resources/pay-data/skills/kubernetes
See also the AI skills salary premium, which uses the same method for AI skills only, and the salary by job title pages.
More pay data
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