LA IT Salary Benchmarks
New 2026 benchmarks show Los Angeles pays premiums for specialized IT roles: Network Engineers with CCNA average $95K–$120K, cloud engineers $110K–$145K, and cloud/security specialists can hit $155K+. Employers are spending more on stacked certifications and automation skills to secure and optimize cloud estates. (qz.com) (petronellatech.com)
The mean Network Engineer salary in Los Angeles is $129,457, with entry-level earners averaging $90,609 and senior engineers around $147,975, per SalaryExpert’s March 22, 2026 update. (salaryexpert.com) (salaryexpert.com) Salary.com’s February 1, 2026 snapshot lists an average Network Engineer pay of $105,544 in Los Angeles with a typical range from $95,665 to $112,601, while ZipRecruiter reported a regional average of $125,951 in February 2026. (salary.com) (salary.com; ziprecruiter.com) California-wide data show AWS/cloud-focused engineers averaging $139,661 per year in ZipRecruiter’s March 2026 dataset, and Built In’s Los Angeles-specific profile lists a $172,500 average for Cloud Engineers in the city. (ziprecruiter.com) (ziprecruiter.com; builtin.com) Cloud-security specialist pay is clustered in six figures: ZipRecruiter’s January 2026 California average for Cloud Security Engineers was $150,773, PayScale’s national median sat near $136,485 in early March 2026, and Glassdoor’s LA total-pay model estimates top-area Cloud Security Engineers can reach roughly $174,231. (ziprecruiter.com) (ziprecruiter.com; payscale.com; glassdoor.com) Recruiters and salary guides say employers are explicitly paying premiums for stacked credentials plus automation/IaC skills—Robert Half reports firms offer higher pay for advanced cloud and security skills, Foote Partners’ IT Skills & Certifications Pay Index tracks cash premiums for specific certs, and cloud job trackers show Terraform-skilled roles commanding median pay near $165,000 with 700+ live listings. (roberthalf.com) (roberthalf.com; footepartners.com; cloudjobs.io) CompTIA’s stackable-cert pathways and bootcamp/academy data show measurable ROI for Help Desk-to-engineering moves—CompTIA maps multi-cert tracks (A+, Network+, Security+, Cloud+) as formal transition routes, and Cloud Engineer Academy’s dataset quantifies AWS certification uplifts of roughly $15,000–$25,000 to base pay for cloud-role entrants. (netcomlearning.com) (netcomlearning.com; cloudengineeracademy.io)
