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Infrastructure architect vs principal architect

The differences between infrastructure architects and principal architects can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a principal architect has an average salary of $133,276, which is higher than the $119,786 average annual salary of an infrastructure architect.

The top three skills for an infrastructure architect include cloud, azure and amazon web services. The most important skills for a principal architect are cloud, infrastructure, and emerging technologies.

Infrastructure architect vs principal architect overview

Infrastructure ArchitectPrincipal Architect
Yearly salary$119,786$133,276
Hourly rate$57.59$64.08
Growth rate5%3%
Number of jobs102,531118,908
Job satisfaction-4
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 67%Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Average age4444
Years of experience--

What does an infrastructure architect do?

An infrastructure architect specializes in designing and establishing information systems to optimize business procedures and company operations, ensuring efficiency and smooth workflow. Their responsibilities revolve around performing research and assessments to identify company needs, evaluate existing systems to determine its strengths and weaknesses, and present recommendations to senior officers or executives. Furthermore, an infrastructure architect must spearhead the integration and innovation of systems and technologies, all while adhering to the company's policies and regulations, including its vision and mission.

What does a principal architect do?

Principal Architects manage all design work at an architecture firm. They ensure that all work is of high professional quality and manage the activity of other design professionals.

Infrastructure architect vs principal architect salary

Infrastructure architects and principal architects have different pay scales, as shown below.

Infrastructure ArchitectPrincipal Architect
Average salary$119,786$133,276
Salary rangeBetween $94,000 And $152,000Between $97,000 And $181,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CASan Francisco, CA
Highest paying stateOregonCalifornia
Best paying companyGrubhubGoogle
Best paying industryHospitalityTechnology

Differences between infrastructure architect and principal architect education

There are a few differences between an infrastructure architect and a principal architect in terms of educational background:

Infrastructure ArchitectPrincipal Architect
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 67%Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Most common majorComputer ScienceArchitecture
Most common collegeStanford UniversityMassachusetts Institute of Technology

Infrastructure architect vs principal architect demographics

Here are the differences between infrastructure architects' and principal architects' demographics:

Infrastructure ArchitectPrincipal Architect
Average age4444
Gender ratioMale, 93.4% Female, 6.6%Male, 89.3% Female, 10.7%
Race ratioBlack 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%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 Percentage11%11%

Differences between infrastructure architect and principal architect duties and responsibilities

Infrastructure architect example responsibilities.

  • Improve LDAP ACI management which give the project ability to manage ACI's via grouper rather than case by case basis.
  • Manage global voice communications both traditional and VoIP telephony.
  • Manage all UNIX environments, installations, configurations and implementations.
  • Leverage SharePoint to automate business processes and track historical data.
  • Manage Cisco ASA firewalls and Microsoft ISA firewalls in production environment providing secure configurations and monitoring of the firewall logs.
  • Research cloud computing to help determine company direction and potential applications to migrate to a cloud-base infrastructure.
  • Show more

Principal architect example responsibilities.

  • Manage and review Hadoop log files.
  • Manage integrated ERP projects for manufacturing plants
  • Design and implement a Java base reverse proxy that manage application routes.
  • Lead architecture development for a CRM web collaboration product and a CRM multi-media/multi-channel integration product.
  • Manage offshore engineering team, overcoming challenges including technical, resource planning & motivation, communication, and infrastructure.
  • Design and develop the rich desktop web client using ExtJS, a JavaScript framework with an extensive library of UI components.
  • Show more

Infrastructure architect vs principal architect skills

Common infrastructure architect skills
  • Cloud, 11%
  • Azure, 9%
  • Amazon Web Services, 7%
  • Linux, 7%
  • Cloud Computing, 5%
  • Switches, 5%
Common principal architect skills
  • Cloud, 8%
  • Infrastructure, 7%
  • Emerging Technologies, 6%
  • Java, 5%
  • AWS, 5%
  • Python, 4%

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