DevOps Engineer vs Network Engineer: Salary & Career Benchmarks in Singapore

In Singapore, DevOps Engineer roles typically command a higher median salary than Network Engineer positions. According to our 2026 live benchmark data, a mid-level DevOps Engineer earns a median salary of SGD10K, whereas a Network Engineer brings in roughly SGD8K (a gap of SGD2K at the median).

Seniority, tech stack, and location all move this gap. Senior practitioners in either discipline can exceed the upper range through specialist skills. See the skills premium section below for the specific certifications and tools that push offers to the top of the range.

While both positions are vital to a modern tech organisation, DevOps Engineer and Network Engineer have fundamentally different daily workflows.

DevOps Engineer focuses primarily on building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure automation, and deployment workflows. Day-to-day work revolves around writing Terraform or Ansible scripts, managing Kubernetes clusters, configuring GitHub Actions or Jenkins pipelines, monitoring system health, and handling on-call incidents.

Network Engineer focuses on designing, implementing, and maintaining network infrastructure including LAN, WAN, SD-WAN, and cloud networking. Their time is spent configuring Cisco or Juniper switches and routers, managing SD-WAN deployments, maintaining network monitoring tools, troubleshooting connectivity issues, and designing network security controls.

Transitioning between these two paths is achievable but requires targeted upskilling.

Moving from DevOps Engineer to Network Engineer: CCNA certification and practical hands-on networking experience are the standard entry path. The discipline is increasingly converging with cloud engineering as on-premises infrastructure declines.

Moving from Network Engineer to DevOps Engineer: Linux administration, scripting (Bash or Python), and cloud fundamentals are the standard entry requirements. Software engineers transitioning in find the infrastructure mindset shift more important than any specific tooling gap.

Neither path requires starting from scratch. Professionals in both roles share underlying technology fluency; the gap is usually domain knowledge and specific tooling rather than core engineering fundamentals.

In Singapore in 2026, both roles are seeing demand, but with different drivers.

DevOps Engineer demand is extreme, particularly in Bank and e-commerce platform teams, led by employers such as DBS Bank and Grab. Network Engineer demand is moderate, concentrated in Banks and telcos managing hybrid cloud and on-premises networking complexity, led by employers such as Singtel and DBS Bank.

Workspace flexibility significantly impacts total compensation value in Singapore.

DevOps Engineer roles score 85% on our remote-friendliness index (Very High). This is because infrastructure and pipeline work is asynchronous and entirely tool-driven with no client-facing requirements, which keeps remote and hybrid listings common among Singapore's tech scale-ups even as the banks pull back. Where in-office attendance is required, it is typically driven by production incident war rooms and cross-team release planning sessions, with Singapore's MAS-regulated banks more likely than scale-ups to formalise this into a fixed office schedule.

Network Engineer roles score 50% (Moderate). Software-defined networking and cloud networking are remote-compatible, though Singapore's banks and telcos still expect regular on-site presence for this discipline is the primary driver of flexibility. When office days are required, it is usually for physical hardware configuration, on-site troubleshooting, and data centre work require regular on-site presence, and Singapore's dense data centre corridor makes this a genuinely in-person role.