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The term “Site Reliability Engineering” originated at Google and was coined by Ben Treynor Sloss. A Google SRE salary is based on how the code is configured, deployed, and monitored, as well as the availability, latency, change management, emergency response, and capacity management of services in production.
Google site reliability engineer salary further depends on how you can help the company in its mission to create, shield, and continue to progress all of its public services systems and software, like Google Search, Gmail, etc. As an SRE, you would need to keep revenue-critical systems up and running despite bandwidth outages, storms, and configuration errors.
If you are gunning for an SRE role at Google and preparing for the tech interview, check out our technical interview checklist, interview questions page, and salary negotiation e-book to get interview-ready!
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In this article, we’ll be decoding Google site reliability engineer salary. The following topics will be covered:
What is Site Reliability Engineering?
Google Site Reliability Engineer Salary
Google Site Reliability Engineer Salary: Stock Options
Google Site Reliability Engineer Salary Compared to Other Tech Companies
How to Crack the Google Site Reliability Engineer interview
FAQs on Google Site Reliability Engineer Salary
Site Reliability Engineering is a process of defining reliability goals and continuously improving them as needed. This was started by Benjamin Treynor Sloss when he joined Google in 2003.
“SRE is what happens when you ask a software engineer to design an operations team” — Ben Treynor.
Read How Google Came Up With the Site Reliability Engineering Role to find the whole story of how Google came up with this role.
On average, the Google site reliability engineer’s salary amounts to $183,000 per year in the US.
The salary consists of the following components:
While this is the average salary, the actual Google site reliability engineer salary range varies according to your experience, position, and other factors.
The Google site reliability engineer salary structure consists of Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) that the company issues to every engineer, irrespective of the job level. This type of compensation consists of receiving company shares in exchange for your work. Most big tech companies issue RSUs to their employees. It’s a good way to get the employees invested in the company’s long-term success.
At Google, RSUs are subject to a four-year vesting schedule, which means 25% of your stocks vest every year for four years. Until you’ve been in the company for at least a year, the stock will not be accessible. You need to wait until your stocks vest to sell them.
Google sometimes refers to its RSUs as Google Stock Units (GSUs). The vesting schedule for GSUs may vary depending on the number of shares you receive from the company. For instance, if you earn less than 32 GSUs, your stocks will vest annually. Your stocks will vest quarterly if you make between 64 to 159 GSUs.
If you plan to switch to a new company as an SRE, it’s a good idea to weigh your options. Here’s how Google site reliability engineer salary matches up with other tech companies (average base salary per year as per Glassdoor):
As you can see, when it comes to the average Google site reliability engineer salary, Google is among the highest-paying tech companies. It is only second to Twitter by a small margin. This is no surprise, as Google is known for paying higher salaries than the industry average.
Here are a few tips to crack the interview and get a good Google site reliability engineer salary package:
Create a study plan and focus on a few topics each day.
Learn the fundamentals.
Practice solving problems using pencil and blank paper or a whiteboard and markers.
Practice mock interviews. This is where your networking can help. Ask someone you know to be an interviewer and take your mock interview.
Use a timer and practice coding questions.
The list below are a few common interview questions that can help you prepare for your interview at Google:
Head over to Learn and problems for learning the fundamentals and practicing commonly asked coding problems at FAANG and other tier-1 tech companies.
Some of the most commonly asked questions about Google site reliability engineer salary are:
Q1. What does a Site Reliability Engineer do?
As an SRE at Google, you’ll focus on finding a balance between releasing new features and ensuring that they are reliable for users.
Q2. Who can become a Site Reliability Engineer?
You need to have strong foundations in both systems engineering and software engineering to apply for this role.
Q3. What is the average Google site reliability engineer salary?
On average, the Google site reliability engineer salary package amounts to approximately $183,000 a year in the US.
Q4. How many site reliability engineers does Google have?
Google has over 1,500 site reliability engineers. Many of their products have small to medium-sized SRE teams supporting them; however, not all products do.
Q5. Are SREs well paid?
SREs are among the highest-paid engineers in the industry — just below their fellow managers.
If you need help with your prep, join Interview Kickstart’s Site Reliability Engineering Interview Course — the first-of-its-kind, domain-specific tech interview prep program designed specifically for Site Reliability Engineers. We’ll help you land your dream job and the Google site reliability engineer salary you deserve.
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