Kubernetes job market trends and salaries in Q3 2025

🚉 Platform Engineers are out for 👨🔬 DevOps Engineers' Lunch! 🍚. . . Our State of the Kubernetes Jobs report 📑 is now available: https://lnkd.in/g5jj-jww . . It features salaries for DevOps, Platform Engineers, and Software Engineers 💰 salaries, 🏢 preferred working modes, 🔄 job frequency, and more. . . Our report is brought to you by LearnKube — get started on your Kubernetes journey through comprehensive online, in-person, or remote training. https://lnkd.in/ge4aYVZq

Anyone can become a DevOps Engineer, but few can handle the pressure that comes with being one. The roadmap seems simple: - Start with Linux, Python, and Bash. - Move on to Docker, Terraform, and Ansible. - Add a cloud platform, throw in some monitoring tools, and top it off with Kubernetes. - Done? Welcome to DevOps! But here’s the truth no one talks about… You won’t spend most of your time deploying things. Instead, you'll be busy doing, debugging failed pipelines, investigating downtimes, managing access issues, ensuring compliance, and protecting business continuity. You become the last line of defense when production breaks. You become the reason revenue doesn’t crash. You become reliable, and that takes more than a checklist of tools. That takes experience, painful, hands-on, real-world exposure to problems, pressure, and perseverance. So, start early. Get your hands dirty. Clock your 10,000 hours, ideally in 3 years (forty hours per week of job), no more than 5 years (64 hours per week of job). Because in DevOps, tools may get you in the door… But reliability keeps you in the room. What’s the one word that truly defines a great DevOps engineer? Options: A) Deployment B) Automation C) Reliability D) Certification Drop your answer in the comments. #DevOps #CareerGrowth #Linux #CloudComputing #Terraform #Kubernetes #SRE #InfrastructureAsCode #TechCareers #DevOpsEngineer

🚀 Platform Engineering is officially coming for DevOps! (though DevOps isn't going anywhere - holding steady at 9-11% while being the most remote-friendly) Just read through Kube Careers' Q3 2025 report, and some findings really stood out: - Platform Engineer roles nearly doubled from 4-7% to 9% of positions - Software Engineers still dominate at 43% of all Kubernetes jobs - DevOps Engineers get the best remote flexibility (56%) while Engineering Managers are glued to offices (59%) With AI supposedly replacing juniors, I expected entry-level roles to hit zero. Instead, they doubled YoY! Still just 2-3%, but that's... unexpected. Full report: https://lnkd.in/g5jj-jww Thanks to Vikrant Mane for analyzing 509 job postings and surfacing these insights!

🚨 Monitoring isn’t a luxury — it’s the lifeline of any system. ⚙️ As a DevOps Engineer, your job isn’t just to build pipelines or deploy apps, it’s to be the 👀 eyes that see problems before the system collapses. 📊 Monitoring tells you what happened 🔍 Observability helps you understand why it happened 📢 Every alert is a piece of information 📈 Every dashboard tells a story about your system’s health ✨ If you can’t monitor it, you can’t trust it.

🚀 After mentoring 1,000+ engineers in DevOps and Cloud Engineering, I noticed one pattern: Most people get certified. Very few become job-ready. Here’s a simple 3-step roadmap that actually gets you hired 👇 🔥 Step 1: Build Unshakable Foundations • Linux & Networking — permissions, SSH, systemd, routing • Git & CI/CD — version control, branching, GitHub Actions, Jenkins • Containers — Dockerfiles, registries, multi-stage builds • Kubernetes Basics — pods, deployments, services, YAML 👉 Most engineers stop here. But this only gets you certified, not ready for production. ⚙ Step 2: Automate, Monitor & Think Like a DevOps Engineer • Automate pipelines using Jenkins, GitLab CI, or GitHub Actions • Build and deploy infrastructure with Terraform & Ansible • Set up monitoring & alerts with Prometheus, Grafana, ELK • Troubleshoot real-world issues — failed deployments, scaling errors, resource limits 📈 This is where you shift from “I can deploy apps” → to “I can run production systems.” 💼 Step 3: Align Your Skills with Market Demand • Target fast-growing roles: DevOps Engineer, Cloud Engineer, SRE • Master AWS, Azure, or GCP — focus on automation and reliability • Learn GitOps, FinOps, and security best practices • Present your experience as: Problem → Solution → Business Impact Recruiters don’t hire tool collectors. They hire engineers who deliver reliability, speed, and scalability. 💬 Comment “DevOps Roadmap” and I’ll share my 2025 DevOps Job-Ready Guide — including projects, tools, and salary insights. hashtag#DevOps hashtag#CloudEngineering hashtag#SRE hashtag#AWS hashtag#Kubernetes hashtag#Terraform hashtag#CareerGrowth hashtag#TechCareers

🚀 After mentoring 1,000+ engineers in DevOps and Cloud Engineering, I noticed one pattern: Most people get certified. Very few become job-ready. Here’s a simple 3-step roadmap that actually gets you hired 👇 🔥 Step 1: Build Unshakable Foundations • Linux & Networking — permissions, SSH, systemd, routing • Git & CI/CD — version control, branching, GitHub Actions, Jenkins • Containers — Dockerfiles, registries, multi-stage builds • Kubernetes Basics — pods, deployments, services, YAML 👉 Most engineers stop here. But this only gets you certified, not ready for production. ⚙ Step 2: Automate, Monitor & Think Like a DevOps Engineer • Automate pipelines using Jenkins, GitLab CI, or GitHub Actions • Build and deploy infrastructure with Terraform & Ansible • Set up monitoring & alerts with Prometheus, Grafana, ELK • Troubleshoot real-world issues — failed deployments, scaling errors, resource limits 📈 This is where you shift from “I can deploy apps” → to “I can run production systems.” 💼 Step 3: Align Your Skills with Market Demand • Target fast-growing roles: DevOps Engineer, Cloud Engineer, SRE • Master AWS, Azure, or GCP — focus on automation and reliability • Learn GitOps, FinOps, and security best practices • Present your experience as: Problem → Solution → Business Impact Recruiters don’t hire tool collectors. They hire engineers who deliver reliability, speed, and scalability. 💬 Comment “DevOps Roadmap” and I’ll share my 2025 DevOps Job-Ready Guide — including projects, tools, and salary insights. hashtag#DevOps hashtag#CloudEngineering hashtag#SRE hashtag#AWS hashtag#Kubernetes hashtag#Terraform hashtag#CareerGrowth hashtag#TechCareers

A Reality Check for Aspiring DevOps/SRE Engineers 💡 I've been seeing posts like this frequently, and I want to share some honest perspective for early-career engineers and recent graduates. The Hard Truth About Expensive Bootcamps: While courses charging ₹27,000+ promise "real-world chaos simulation" and elite skills, ask yourself: Can a few weeks replicate years of production experience? If a 4-year degree didn't teach you everything, can a bootcamp, when there are 1000+ resoucres are available free on internet? Better Alternatives for Learning DevOps/SRE: 1. Join Startups Instead - Real production systems, real incidents, real learning. You'll gain practical experience faster than any simulation. 2. Free Resources Are Abundant - Platforms like YouTube, official documentation, AWS/Azure/GCP free tiers, and open-source projects offer quality learning at zero cost. 3. AI Tools Are Your Friend - ChatGPT, Claude, and other AI assistants can guide you through complex concepts, debug your code, and answer questions 24/7—for free. 4. Connect with Industry Experts - Many experienced professionals mentor for free through LinkedIn, Discord communities, and open-source contributions. Reach out genuinely. My Concern: Posts promising "60 LPA+ positions" through paid courses prey on job anxiety. They highlight problems (Terraform state recovery, Karpenter cost spikes) that sound impressive but can be learned through documentation and hands-on practice. My Advice: 1. Protect your hard-earned money 2. Question anyone charging premium prices for knowledge freely available online 3. Build real projects, contribute to open source, break things in your homelab 4. Network authentically with practitioners who've actually solved these problems. In 2025, information is free. What matters is your curiosity, persistence, and hands-on practice. If you're serious about DevOps/SRE, invest time—not money—into learning. The best engineers I know learned by doing, not by paying. What's your experience? Have you found valuable free resources that helped your DevOps journey? Let's share and help each other grow. 🚀

I've interviewed 50+ "Platform Engineers" in 6 months. I'm seeing DevOps 2.0. Another job title that means everything and nothing. In 2015, nobody could define "DevOps Engineer." In 2025, the same problem with "Platform Engineer." Here's what they actually do: Type 1: YAML Engineers (40%) Write K8s manifests. Debug CRDs. Google Istio errors. Hope nothing breaks over the weekends. Type 2: Firefighters (35%) "Platform down" Slack messages. 3 am pod restarts. Explains failed deployments. Incident Zooms. Type 3: Tool Collectors (20%) Evaluate CNCF projects weekly. Pitch "this solves everything" tools. Implement tools nobody asked for. Type 4: Actual Platform Engineers (5%) Understand developer workflows deeply. Reduce cognitive load systematically. Delete before adding. Measure by developer productivity, not the number of tools. Real Platform Engineering should be: 1. Developer Experience First (not infrastructure first) 2. Systematic Simplification (not the latest CNCF adoption) 3. Business Outcomes (not tech stack vanity) Platform Fix OS definition: "The systematic practice of reducing cognitive load on developers while improving business outcomes through pragmatic technology choices and ruthless simplification." If your "Platform Engineering" is 80% YAML and 20% firefighting, you're doing infrastructure operations with a fancy title. The industry needs to define this role before it becomes meaningless. What does "Platform Engineering" actually mean at your company? #PlatformEngineering #DevOps #EngineeringLeadership #CloudNative — Enjoy this? ♻️ Repost it to your network and follow Steve Wade for more. 200+ engineering teams have taken our Platform Complexity Assessment. Average score: 67 (danger zone). See where you stand in 2 minutes → https://lnkd.in/e4zuednU

I have seen the exact same pattern across multiple organizations. Teams often rebrand infrastructure operations as “Platform Engineering” while the real challenge remains unresolved: reducing developer cognitive load to promote focus on delivering business value. It is rarely about adding another #CNCF tool or tweaking YAML. True progress comes from systematic simplification, consistent developer experience, and continuous improvement. Steve Wade captured it perfectly. If your platform is not improving developer velocity or confidence, it is just another layer of complexity with a different name. The real platform journey begins when you stop counting tools and start measuring outcomes. #PlatformEngineering #DevOps #EngineeringLeadership #DeveloperExperience #CloudNative

As a Platform Engineer, I love it when I learn about a shortcut a Developer has been using for their work... If I can figure out a way to convert that hidden workflow into a "platform component" (complete with successful test cases, version control, and documentation) that can safely be used by other Developers, everyone wins a little. Hidden workflows = Future Platform components! In my experience, the two most important reasons to build upon spontaneous developer innovation (aka; shortcuts, workarounds, locally stored bash scripts, etc.): 1. Improving Developer experience 2. Higher overall platform adoption Over time the platform becomes more robust and automated, and developers see more their own contributions being used across the org.