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Design chief vs lead designer

The differences between design chiefs and lead designers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 6-12 months to become both a design chief and a lead designer. Additionally, a lead designer has an average salary of $110,001, which is higher than the $103,343 average annual salary of a design chief.

The top three skills for a design chief include website design, design process and user experience. The most important skills for a lead designer are sketch, user experience, and architecture.

Design chief vs lead designer overview

Design ChiefLead Designer
Yearly salary$103,343$110,001
Hourly rate$49.68$52.89
Growth rate3%3%
Number of jobs49,81545,423
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 68%Bachelor's Degree, 64%
Average age3838
Years of experience1212

Design chief vs lead designer salary

Design chiefs and lead designers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Design ChiefLead Designer
Average salary$103,343$110,001
Salary rangeBetween $45,000 And $233,000Between $78,000 And $154,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CASan Francisco, CA
Highest paying stateCaliforniaCalifornia
Best paying companyAdvance Tooling ConceptsAirbnb
Best paying industry-Start-up

Differences between design chief and lead designer education

There are a few differences between a design chief and a lead designer in terms of educational background:

Design ChiefLead Designer
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 68%Bachelor's Degree, 64%
Most common majorGraphic DesignGraphic Design
Most common collegeUniversity of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Pennsylvania

Design chief vs lead designer demographics

Here are the differences between design chiefs' and lead designers' demographics:

Design ChiefLead Designer
Average age3838
Gender ratioMale, 74.8% Female, 25.2%Male, 73.2% Female, 26.8%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 3.4% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 10.6% Asian, 10.4% White, 70.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%Black or African American, 3.4% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 10.6% Asian, 10.4% White, 70.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%
LGBT Percentage13%13%

Differences between design chief and lead designer duties and responsibilities

Design chief example responsibilities.

  • Manage REVIT models for various BIM projects including updating, cleaning, and linking arch models for MEP design.
  • Create and present artwork and PowerPoint presentations for senior management, the sales and marketing group, and dealer viewing.
  • Compile PowerPoint presentations for trend inspiration and verification involving motion and music.
  • Elicit and gather user and business requirements through design sessions, brainstorming and prototyping.
  • Design and oversee graphics for apparel lines, integrating original style-guide art concepts with innovative detailing.
  • Establish agency-wide design production process guidelines, evaluate and implement new department software, and create procedures for prototyping.
  • Show more

Lead designer example responsibilities.

  • Lead development of HTML5, CSS3 and mobile platform prototypes.
  • Lead team in fit meetings and collaborate with TD on sketch updates.
  • Lead & design all creative content stemming from apparel design to web identity.
  • Prepare HTML, CSS and JavaScript coding guides and best practices, and implement, enforce through peer code reviews.
  • Provide expertise skills in CSS, dynamic HTML, java script, and Java development languages.
  • Develop interactive UI features, database schema design, security module design and development.
  • Show more

Design chief vs lead designer skills

Common design chief skills
  • Website Design, 10%
  • Design Process, 9%
  • User Experience, 7%
  • Product Design, 7%
  • CSS, 6%
  • Design Solutions, 6%
Common lead designer skills
  • Sketch, 14%
  • User Experience, 6%
  • Architecture, 5%
  • UI, 5%
  • Design Solutions, 5%
  • Project Management, 4%

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