Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between consultant systems engineers and solutions engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 1-2 years to become a consultant systems engineer, becoming a solutions engineer takes usually requires 4-6 years. Additionally, a consultant systems engineer has an average salary of $112,898, which is higher than the $95,482 average annual salary of a solutions engineer.
The top three skills for a consultant systems engineer include infrastructure, cloud and pre sales. The most important skills for a solutions engineer are cloud, pre sales, and java.
| Consultant Systems Engineer | Solutions Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $112,898 | $95,482 |
| Hourly rate | $54.28 | $45.90 |
| Growth rate | 5% | 6% |
| Number of jobs | 144,261 | 123,287 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 64% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Average age | 43 | 44 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 6 |
A consultant systems engineer specializes in designing and developing systems to optimize business operations, recommending solutions against problem areas. Among their responsibilities include gathering and analyzing data to identify the needs of operations, designing prototypes and test structures, performing research and analysis to determine the ideal practices, assessing existing systems to identify their strengths and weaknesses, and establishing guidelines. Moreover, a consultant systems engineer must maintain an active communication line with staff, all while implementing the company's policies and regulations.
A solutions engineer is an individual who assists customers in identifying their computer software needs and generates customized business software solutions for them. Solutions engineers collaborate with other department engineers to create practical demonstrations of proposed solutions and showcase them to the other members of the team. They are required to test the installed software and fix programming bugs that create errors with the system. Solutions engineers also maintain customer relations by providing post-installation follow-ups.
Consultant systems engineers and solutions engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Consultant Systems Engineer | Solutions Engineer | |
| Average salary | $112,898 | $95,482 |
| Salary range | Between $90,000 And $141,000 | Between $68,000 And $134,000 |
| Highest paying City | Seattle, WA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | Washington | California |
| Best paying company | Fortinet | ByteDance |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Start-up |
There are a few differences between a consultant systems engineer and a solutions engineer in terms of educational background:
| Consultant Systems Engineer | Solutions Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 64% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Most common major | Computer Science | Computer Science |
| Most common college | California State University - Long Beach | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between consultant systems engineers' and solutions engineers' demographics:
| Consultant Systems Engineer | Solutions Engineer | |
| Average age | 43 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 86.1% Female, 13.9% | Male, 85.1% Female, 14.9% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 8.5% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 12.2% Asian, 12.7% White, 61.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% | Black or African American, 1.4% Unknown, 6.1% Hispanic or Latino, 6.9% Asian, 10.8% White, 74.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% |
| LGBT Percentage | 9% | 7% |