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The differences between infrastructure engineers and reliability engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 1-2 years to become an infrastructure engineer, becoming a reliability engineer takes usually requires 2-4 years. Additionally, an infrastructure engineer has an average salary of $106,438, which is higher than the $105,551 average annual salary of a reliability engineer.
The top three skills for an infrastructure engineer include python, cloud and linux. The most important skills for a reliability engineer are java, troubleshoot, and ruby.
| Infrastructure Engineer | Reliability Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $106,438 | $105,551 |
| Hourly rate | $51.17 | $50.75 |
| Growth rate | 5% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 91,845 | 44,471 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 64% | Bachelor's Degree, 76% |
| Average age | 43 | 42 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 4 |
As an infrastructure engineer, they're responsible for designing, deploying, and maintaining the IT infrastructure using the newest technology and ensure all the systems within an organization function seamlessly. They ensure all the IT systems are updated to support the business to function effectively. It is also their job to maintain internet connections, cabling, virtualization platforms, and storage area networks. Moreover, they oversee the IT infrastructure engineer system administration middleware application servers, like Oracle Weblogic server, IBM WebSphere server, and automated workflow tools.
A reliability engineer is in charge of determining and managing the asset reliability risks of businesses. Reliability engineers are professionals who solve problems related to engineering. They are equipped with a better understanding of the principles of performance evaluation and prediction for product safety. The job requires knowledge of the field of engineering, strong communication, interpersonal skills, management skills, attention to detail, and reliability. They are also expected to become experts in engineering systems.
Infrastructure engineers and reliability engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Infrastructure Engineer | Reliability Engineer | |
| Average salary | $106,438 | $105,551 |
| Salary range | Between $76,000 And $148,000 | Between $76,000 And $144,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | Richmond, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | Washington |
| Best paying company | Credit Karma | The Citadel |
| Best paying industry | Retail | Start-up |
There are a few differences between an infrastructure engineer and a reliability engineer in terms of educational background:
| Infrastructure Engineer | Reliability Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 64% | Bachelor's Degree, 76% |
| Most common major | Computer Science | Mechanical Engineering |
| Most common college | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Northwestern University |
Here are the differences between infrastructure engineers' and reliability engineers' demographics:
| Infrastructure Engineer | Reliability Engineer | |
| Average age | 43 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 92.2% Female, 7.8% | Male, 87.5% Female, 12.5% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 8.3% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 12.0% Asian, 13.0% White, 61.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% | Black or African American, 4.4% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 10.8% Asian, 14.3% White, 66.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 9% | 4% |