Technology

How to become a Site Reliability Engineer

From devops or sysadmin: every step, how long it takes, and the credential it earns.

Time to get there

2–4 years

Typical pay

$115k–$165k

Starting from

DevOps or sysadmin

Pay is an estimate of typical US entry-level pay for this role and varies by state, employer and shift. The timeline assumes you are starting from devops or sysadmin and includes any licence or programme legally required — not just course length.

The route

1. 1

   2–4 years

   Come from ops or development

   SRE is not an entry-level title; it assumes you have carried a pager already.

2. 2

   6–12 months

   Get deep in Linux and networking

   Debugging a production incident is a systems skill before it is a tooling one.

   Course that covers thisCompTIA Network+ N10-009 (V9) Practice Exam QuestionsUdemy · around $19.99 →
3. 3

   6–12 months

   Learn Kubernetes and infrastructure as code

   Terraform plus a container orchestrator is the current baseline.

   Course that covers thisTerraform for the Absolute Beginners with LabsUdemy · around $19.99 →
4. 4

   6–12 months

   Learn to code properly

   Go or Python. SRE work is automation, not clicking through consoles.

   Course that covers this380+ Exercises - Python Programming Mega Pack - Built-inUdemy · around $19.99 →
5. 5

   1–2 years

   Move onto an SRE rotation

   On-call is the job. Ask what the rotation actually looks like before you accept.

6. ✓

   Destination

   Site Reliability Engineer

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