Why DevOps should Sec: making a case for DevOps Engineers to transition to DevSecOps

Published in December 2025

You can call DevSecOps an ideology, workflow, or a plain extension of DevOps into security. Call it what you may, but it doesn't change the fact that DevSecOps, as a distinguished role, is on the rise, and it is making a serious case for a career path.

How much does a DevSecOps role pay? Is remote work available? Should DevOps engineers consider a foray into Security?

We'll answer all these questions (and more) as we analyse the current DevSecOps job market and how it compares to DevOps.

For our analysis, we'll use Kube Careers' State of the Kubernetes Job Market report, which is one of the most comprehensive datasets in the cloud-native domain.

DevSecOps pays better than DevOps, and the difference is not worth ignoring.

For a more comprehensive analysis, we've used data from the past four quarters (Q4 2024 - Q3 2025). We averaged the salaries for DevSecOps roles over this period.

Thus, we find that on average, the minimum salary for a DevSecOps Engineer stands at $139,108, the maximum salary at $202,953, which brings the mean salary for the last four quarters to $171,030.

How does the average salary compare to DevOps positions?

Averaging the salaries for both positions during the same period yields interesting results!

Here are the key takeaways from the comparison:

• For minimum average salary, DevSecOps ($139,108) positions pay 20% higher than DevOps ($115,327) roles.
• Whereas the difference comes to be 18% for maximum salaries, and 19% for mean salaries in favour of DevSecOps roles.

To conclude, DevSecOps roles pay, on average, 18-20% more than DevOps positions

7 out of 10 DevSecOps roles didn't require the employee to be in the office five days a week!

We've traced preferred working mode data from Q1 to Q3 2025 and averaged it for DevOps and DevSecOps roles.

Here's what the analysis tells us:

• While 75% (35% Remote + 40% Hybrid) of the DevSecOps roles don't require In-office presence 5 days a week, the same metric falls to 69% for DevOps positions — pointing to the latter requiring more In-office presence.
• While DevOps positions are more remote-friendly (by 11%), DevSecOps roles make up for it with higher hybrid-friendly (by 13.5%) offerings.

Differences in preferred working modes:

• DevOps roles = more remote work, less hybrid work, and higher in-office requirements
• DevSecOps = more hybrid work arrangement, with less remote work and fewer in-office requirements.

Do most DevSecOps roles require senior-level experience? What's the preferred experience level for DevOps?

We've traced different experience requirements for each role so far in 2025 (Q1-Q3), and the results are interesting to say the least:

• 80% of the DevSecOps roles that we published required Senior-level experience, while the same metric stands at 75% for DevOps positions. The same ratio is evident with Mid-level experience roles (14% vs 12%).
• Interestingly, there exist 5 times as many lead-level DevOps positions as lead-level DevSecOps roles. What's even more interesting is how the hierarchy is reversed when it comes to Principal-level experience requirement (in favour of DevSecOps)
• What's also worth noting is how there were no Junior DevSecOps roles from Q1 to Q3 2025, whereas 3.15% of all the DevOps positions were Junior.

In summary, the entry point for most DevSecOps roles typically begins at mid-level positions and often extends to senior roles. Meanwhile, you can find DevOps vacancies at the junior level.

DevSecOps roles seem good on paper, but how frequent are these roles?

We've traced the job frequency for both roles so far in 2025 (Q1-Q3), and the trend is rather surprising.

There are two key observations from the analysis:

• The total number of DevOps and DevSecOps positions has increased each quarter in 2025. This is an encouraging sign.
• Averaging job frequency, we find there are 2.27 DevOps positions for every DevSecOps role. This means there are at least twice as many DevOps positions in the cloud-native job market as DevSecOps roles.

So then, should you DevSecOps?

It's up to you. Adding a security skillset to your DevOps knowledge not only pays better, it takes you a step closer to being irreplacable.

However, do know that most of these positions require Senior-level experience, and are half as frequent as DevOps positions.