Department lead vs senior team lead

The differences between department leads and senior team leads can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 4-6 years to become both a department lead and a senior team lead. Additionally, a senior team lead has an average salary of $115,480, which is higher than the $42,113 average annual salary of a department lead.

The top three skills for a department lead include cleanliness, safety procedures and customer service. The most important skills for a senior team lead are customer service, patients, and project management.

Department lead vs senior team lead overview

	Department Lead	Senior Team Lead
Yearly salary	$42,113	$115,480
Hourly rate	$20.25	$55.52
Growth rate	-	28%
Number of jobs	204,534	65,635
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 39%	Bachelor's Degree, 64%
Average age	43	47
Years of experience	6	6

What does a department lead do?

A department lead's responsibilities will vary in an organization or company. It will, most of the time, revolve around overseeing the progress of work in a particular area and evaluating department staff's performance. Other responsibilities include setting goals and implementing the company's policies and guidelines. They may also carry out administrative tasks such as approving and signing paperwork, producing reports and presentations, and crafting guidelines and strategies to help reach goals. Furthermore, as a department head, it is important to encourage staff and shape them into valuable company members.

What does a senior team lead do?

A senior team lead specializes in spearheading operations in a particular team or department. Although the responsibilities will vary according to the line of work or one's employment industry, most of it will revolve around overseeing the team's performance and ensuring that everything is running smoothly. It is also the senior team lead that sets the budget and goals most of the time, encouraging staff to meet them. Furthermore, as a senior officer in the team, it is vital to be a role model, shaping employees into valuable workforce members.

Department lead vs senior team lead salary

Department leads and senior team leads have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Department Lead	Senior Team Lead
Average salary	$42,113	$115,480
Salary range	Between $22,000 And $79,000	Between $81,000 And $163,000
Highest paying City	New Haven, CT	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	Rhode Island	Oregon
Best paying company	Tufts Medical Center	The Walt Disney Company
Best paying industry	Manufacturing	-

Differences between department lead and senior team lead education

There are a few differences between a department lead and a senior team lead in terms of educational background:

	Department Lead	Senior Team Lead
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 39%	Bachelor's Degree, 64%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	SUNY College of Technology at Delhi	California State University - Bakersfield

Department lead vs senior team lead demographics

Here are the differences between department leads' and senior team leads' demographics:

	Department Lead	Senior Team Lead
Average age	43	47
Gender ratio	Male, 54.7% Female, 45.3%	Male, 57.3% Female, 42.7%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 8.4% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 17.8% Asian, 6.9% White, 61.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%	Black or African American, 10.4% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 17.3% Asian, 6.1% White, 60.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage	9%	8%

Differences between department lead and senior team lead duties and responsibilities

Department lead example responsibilities.

Implement inventory management system to effectively manage on-hands, assist with correct replenishment and maintain an acceptable level of over-stock.
Operate POS system, and receive payment by cash, check, credit cards, vouchers, or automatic debit.
Oversee the completion of all POS transactions, maintain cash office records and assistant in training of all new cashiers.
Conduct geotechnical and geological investigations and mineral resource evaluations for commercial, industrial and governmental clients using the above-mentioned drilling techniques.
Develop unique SQL, cloudbase, and ADHOC telephony query techniques resulting in the identification of previously undiscovered nefarious networks.

Senior team lead example responsibilities.

Lead all efforts to negotiate contracts with key integration partners who specialize in ETL tools need to migrate client data.
Manage the hardlines department which includes health and beauty, consumables, electronics, housewares domestics, seasonal, and toys.
Manage softlines departments in high volume store environment in a metropolitan area.
Develop relationships with various insurance carriers, including Medicaid and Medicare, to productively manage nationwide caseloads.
Manage sales floor operations, emphasizing the receiving and delivery of temperature sensitive consumable merchandise as well as apparel departments.
Reduce wage management control rate by $3.00 YTD.

Department lead vs senior team lead skills

Common department lead skills

Cleanliness, 12%
Safety Procedures, 11%
Customer Service, 10%
Store Management, 8%
Inventory Management, 7%
Sales Floor, 6%

Common senior team lead skills

Customer Service, 18%
Patients, 11%
Project Management, 7%
Process Improvement, 7%
Customer Satisfaction, 6%
HR, 6%

Department Lead vs. similar jobs

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Sales Industry
Department Lead
Department Lead vs Senior Team Lead

Updated January 8, 2025

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