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The differences between infrastructure administrators and senior infrastructure engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both an infrastructure administrator and a senior infrastructure engineer. Additionally, a senior infrastructure engineer has an average salary of $117,765, which is higher than the $93,079 average annual salary of an infrastructure administrator.
The top three skills for an infrastructure administrator include troubleshoot, linux and windows server. The most important skills for a senior infrastructure engineer are cloud, AWS, and linux.
| Infrastructure Administrator | Senior Infrastructure Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $93,079 | $117,765 |
| Hourly rate | $44.75 | $56.62 |
| Growth rate | 5% | 5% |
| Number of jobs | 100,799 | 78,855 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 59% | Bachelor's Degree, 63% |
| Average age | 43 | 43 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
Infrastructure administrators are information technology (IT) professionals who are responsible for implementing and maintaining the telecommunication and data systems of an organization. These administrators must coordinate the implementations of IT procedures and policies of the organization as well as perform daily monitoring, maintenance, and backups. They are required to assist in network troubleshooting and provide end-user support about their hardware and software problems. Infrastructure administrators must also implement policies regarding security, network usage, and disaster recovery.
A senior infrastructure engineer specializes in designing and developing systems and infrastructures based on client preferences and industry standards. They have the duty to identify and understand the project's needs, streamline project requirements, produce drafts, create prototypes and models, and establish tests to identify potential issues and ensure the projects' quality. Additionally, a senior infrastructure engineer has the authority to make decisions, train and supervise junior engineers, establish goals and timelines, provide technical support, and implement policies and guidelines.
Infrastructure administrators and senior infrastructure engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Infrastructure Administrator | Senior Infrastructure Engineer | |
| Average salary | $93,079 | $117,765 |
| Salary range | Between $66,000 And $129,000 | Between $87,000 And $158,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | Washington |
| Best paying company | PayPal | Meta |
| Best paying industry | Finance | Hospitality |
There are a few differences between an infrastructure administrator and a senior infrastructure engineer in terms of educational background:
| Infrastructure Administrator | Senior Infrastructure Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 59% | Bachelor's Degree, 63% |
| Most common major | Computer Science | Computer Science |
| Most common college | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between infrastructure administrators' and senior infrastructure engineers' demographics:
| Infrastructure Administrator | Senior Infrastructure Engineer | |
| Average age | 43 | 43 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 90.4% Female, 9.6% | Male, 75.3% Female, 24.7% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 8.0% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 11.7% Asian, 13.9% White, 61.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% | Black or African American, 8.6% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 12.3% Asian, 10.7% White, 62.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% |
| LGBT Percentage | 9% | 9% |