Infrastructure architect vs systems administrator lead

The differences between infrastructure architects and systems administrator leads can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, an infrastructure architect has an average salary of $119,786, which is higher than the $99,956 average annual salary of a systems administrator lead.

The top three skills for an infrastructure architect include cloud, azure and amazon web services. The most important skills for a systems administrator lead are linux, project management, and windows server.

Infrastructure architect vs systems administrator lead overview

	Infrastructure Architect	Systems Administrator Lead
Yearly salary	$119,786	$99,956
Hourly rate	$57.59	$48.06
Growth rate	5%	5%
Number of jobs	102,531	132,285
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 67%	Bachelor's Degree, 58%
Average age	44	43
Years of experience	-	2

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 systems administrator lead do?

A systems administrator lead is responsible for planning, designing, and implementing procedures for critical enterprise systems. Typical duties of systems administrators include managing the day-to-day operations of a company's computer and network systems, developing new application and system implementation plans, and establishing guidelines for installing and managing the organization's computer operating systems. In addition, you are expected to ensure the security of computer systems by preventing unauthorized use, user abuse, and acts of nature.

Infrastructure architect vs systems administrator lead salary

Infrastructure architects and systems administrator leads have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Infrastructure Architect	Systems Administrator Lead
Average salary	$119,786	$99,956
Salary range	Between $94,000 And $152,000	Between $77,000 And $129,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	Oregon	California
Best paying company	Grubhub	Kabam
Best paying industry	Hospitality	Telecommunication

Differences between infrastructure architect and systems administrator lead education

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

	Infrastructure Architect	Systems Administrator Lead
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 67%	Bachelor's Degree, 58%
Most common major	Computer Science	Computer Science
Most common college	Stanford University	Stanford University

Infrastructure architect vs systems administrator lead demographics

Here are the differences between infrastructure architects' and systems administrator leads' demographics:

	Infrastructure Architect	Systems Administrator Lead
Average age	44	43
Gender ratio	Male, 93.4% Female, 6.6%	Male, 84.6% Female, 15.4%
Race ratio	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%	Black or African American, 8.9% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 12.6% Asian, 9.7% White, 63.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%
LGBT Percentage	11%	9%

Differences between infrastructure architect and systems administrator lead 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.

Systems administrator lead example responsibilities.

Manage all Citrix user connections and issues, print network, server environment and supplies.
Manage printers on the print servers and re-serve IP addresses for devices from the DHCP servers.
Manage software development group SharePoint portal.
Save company many hours of manual testing and developing by engineering Java applications to automate tedious tasks.
Manage development, manufacturing, test and delivery of custom broadband RF electronic test systems for military and aerospace customers.
Perform day-to-day management of system applications and services (NTP, DNS, LDAP, etc .).

Infrastructure architect vs systems administrator lead skills

Common infrastructure architect skills

Cloud, 11%
Azure, 9%
Amazon Web Services, 7%
Linux, 7%
Cloud Computing, 5%
Switches, 5%

Common systems administrator lead skills

Linux, 6%
Project Management, 6%
Windows Server, 5%
System Performance, 5%
Technical Support, 5%
Database, 5%

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Infrastructure Architect vs Systems Administrator Lead

Updated January 8, 2025

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