Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between firewall engineers and principal systems engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a firewall engineer and a principal systems engineer. Additionally, a principal systems engineer has an average salary of $133,208, which is higher than the $99,357 average annual salary of a firewall engineer.
The top three skills for a firewall engineer include network security, cisco asa and azure. The most important skills for a principal systems engineer are systems engineering, DOD, and C++.
| Firewall Engineer | Principal Systems Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $99,357 | $133,208 |
| Hourly rate | $47.77 | $64.04 |
| Growth rate | 5% | 5% |
| Number of jobs | 39,291 | 146,444 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 68% | Bachelor's Degree, 66% |
| Average age | 43 | 43 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
A firewall engineer is concerned about the safety and security of company websites from online attacks. A firewall is a safety measure to help protect the company's information infrastructure or business connected to the internet. The firewall engineer creates, develops, and maintains the company's online security and regularly checks websites for breaches, flaws in the code, and other technical things required to protect a company from outside internet attacks and hacking.
A Principal Systems Engineer supervises a group of other engineers in technical projects. They develop and lead systems engineering projects and efforts.
Firewall engineers and principal systems engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Firewall Engineer | Principal Systems Engineer | |
| Average salary | $99,357 | $133,208 |
| Salary range | Between $76,000 And $128,000 | Between $97,000 And $181,000 |
| Highest paying City | Santa Clara, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | Palo Alto Networks | eBay |
| Best paying industry | Start-up | Telecommunication |
There are a few differences between a firewall engineer and a principal systems engineer in terms of educational background:
| Firewall Engineer | Principal Systems Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 68% | Bachelor's Degree, 66% |
| Most common major | Computer Science | Electrical Engineering |
| Most common college | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Northeastern University |
Here are the differences between firewall engineers' and principal systems engineers' demographics:
| Firewall Engineer | Principal Systems Engineer | |
| Average age | 43 | 43 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 93.4% Female, 6.6% | Male, 89.7% Female, 10.3% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 8.0% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 11.7% Asian, 13.9% White, 61.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% | Black or African American, 8.3% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 12.1% Asian, 12.8% White, 61.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% |
| LGBT Percentage | 9% | 9% |