Rates, 2026
What should a DevOps engineer charge in a smaller market?
About $1,025 a day for a DevOps engineer who is working and booked in a smaller US market. $750 in the first years, $1,275 when senior. An infrastructure project runs about $8,050. Also called: aws, kubernetes, ci/cd.
Other markets: New York or LA · a major city · remote
First years
$750
a day · $95 an hour
Working, booked
$1,025
a day · $125 an hour
Senior, sought after
$1,275
a day · $150 an hour
The rate card, working level
- Day rate$1,025 per day
- Hourlyfor anything that does not fit a day$125 per hour
- An infrastructure project$8,050 per project
- Monthly retainermonitoring and on-call$6,650 per month
Sold by the day, a monthly retainer, a project fee. The day is the unit; half days run 60%.
What to charge for each thing
Ranges for a smaller US market: the low end is the first years, the high end is senior. Working and booked sits in the middle.
- CI/CD setup$1,400 to $5,600 each
- Cloud migration$3,500 to $21,000 each
- Monitoring and on-call$1,400 to $4,200 per month
- Cost review$700 to $2,100 each
How the number is made
DevOpss at this level in this market day at about $1,025 ($900 to $2,000 in New York and LA). Put in the year you actually want on the perfect price page and the number moves with it.
An infrastructure project runs $3,000 to $20,000 and takes about 40 hours of your time; at your hourly that is $5,000. The number is the higher of the two, because the client is buying the outcome, not the hours.
A retainer is the month, not the hours: monitoring and on-call. It is priced about 20% under the same work bought one at a time, in exchange for the certainty; three months minimum, or it is not a retainer.
Questions
- What is a fair day rate for a DevOps engineer in a smaller US market?
- About $1,025 a day for someone working and booked, $750 in the first years, $1,275 when senior and sought after. Half days usually run 60% of the day.
- How much is an infrastructure project?
- $8,050 at a working level in this market. The client is buying the outcome, so the price is the higher of what the market pays for it and what your hours in it are worth.
- What does a monthly retainer look like for a DevOps engineer?
- Around $6,650 a month: monitoring and on-call. About 20% under the same work bought one piece at a time, in exchange for certainty; three months minimum.
- Are these rates a rule?
- No. They are US 2026 ranges for the role, placed by level and moved for the market. What a client actually paid you beats all of it. The tool has a box for that, and it wins.
Your number, in five seconds.
Pick your level and market, get a card you can send the next client who asks. Then RostrLab quotes, papers, invoices and chases every job with it: free for 14 days, $29 a month, never a cut.
More in development and it
web developermobile developerShopify developerbackend developerfull-stack developerno-code builderdata analystdata scientist