2026 comparison
DevOps Engineer vs Data Scientist salary in South Africa
Higher paying career: DevOps Engineer. Approximate monthly difference: R10 000.
Entry, mid, senior pay, demand, difficulty and long-term career upside.
DevOps Engineer
High demand · IT, Computer Science or cloud certification route
EntryR30 000
MidR75 000
SeniorR120 000
Top 20%R180 000
Data Scientist
High demand · Degree in Stats, Maths, CS or related
EntryR30 000
MidR70 000
SeniorR110 000
Top 20%R180 000
Salary breakdown
Entry
R30 000
R30 000
Mid
R75 000
R70 000
Senior
R120 000
R110 000
Top 20%
R180 000
R180 000
Demand
DevOps Engineer10/10
Data Scientist9/10
Difficulty
DevOps Engineer8/10
Data Scientist8/10
Salary difference
+R10 000
Compare the DevOps Engineer salary in South Africa with how much Data Scientists earn at senior level.
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Higher paying career: DevOps Engineer. The senior-level gap is about R10 000 per month, based on R120 000 for DevOps Engineer compared with R110 000 for Data Scientist.
Career alternatives
Higher earning
DevOps Engineer
Easier entry
DevOps Engineer
Better long-term
DevOps Engineer
Skills / requirements
Cloud (AWS / Azure)
DevOps Engineer needs this
Less central
Docker / Kubernetes
DevOps Engineer needs this
Less central
Linux
DevOps Engineer needs this
Less central
CI/CD
DevOps Engineer needs this
Less central
Python / Pandas
Less central
Data Scientist needs this
Machine learning
Less central
Data Scientist needs this
Career progression
DevOps Engineer
Junior DevOps EngineerR40 000
DevOps EngineerR75 000
Senior DevOps EngineerR120 000
Platform LeadR150 000
Data Scientist
Junior Data ScientistR38 000
Data ScientistR70 000
Senior Data ScientistR110 000
Lead / ML EngineerR140 000
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