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The differences between customer engineers and solutions architects can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a solutions architect has an average salary of $116,327, which is higher than the $101,212 average annual salary of a customer engineer.
The top three skills for a customer engineer include customer service, technical problems and level agreements. The most important skills for a solutions architect are cloud, java, and AWS.
| Customer Engineer | Solutions Architect | |
| Yearly salary | $101,212 | $116,327 |
| Hourly rate | $48.66 | $55.93 |
| Growth rate | 3% | 3% |
| Number of jobs | 44,709 | 107,754 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 4.5 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 46% | Bachelor's Degree, 66% |
| Average age | 45 | 44 |
| Years of experience | 6 | - |
A customer engineer provides technical support to organizations having issues with their products or services. Duties and responsibilities may vary depending on the sector, but generally include diagnosing and troubleshooting technical problems with products, performing tests, upgrades and diagnostics to prevent delay or downtime caused by-product issues, and keeping updated reports outlining the problems and measures taken to resolve them. A customer engineer is also responsible for discussing service contracts and their benefits with clients.
A solutions architect specializes in creating and implementing software systems that improve business operations and resolve network issues. They are primarily responsible for conducting research and analysis to assess the business's needs, develop specific designs for the company, provide solutions should there be any system issues, and keep company officials informed with all changes and updates. Furthermore, a solutions architect must lead and encourage development teams, stay up to date with the newest trends to continue innovations within the systems, and implement its policies and guidelines.
Customer engineers and solutions architects have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Customer Engineer | Solutions Architect | |
| Average salary | $101,212 | $116,327 |
| Salary range | Between $77,000 And $131,000 | Between $87,000 And $154,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | New Jersey | California |
| Best paying company | Airbnb | |
| Best paying industry | Start-up | Retail |
There are a few differences between a customer engineer and a solutions architect in terms of educational background:
| Customer Engineer | Solutions Architect | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 46% | Bachelor's Degree, 66% |
| Most common major | Electrical Engineering | Computer Science |
| Most common college | Stanford University | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Here are the differences between customer engineers' and solutions architects' demographics:
| Customer Engineer | Solutions Architect | |
| Average age | 45 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 90.4% Female, 9.6% | Male, 86.6% Female, 13.4% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 4.8% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 11.1% Asian, 14.5% White, 64.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | Black or African American, 6.2% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 8.8% Asian, 12.0% White, 67.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 11% |