Infrastructure lead vs senior system administrator

The differences between infrastructure leads and senior system administrators 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 lead and a senior system administrator. Additionally, an infrastructure lead has an average salary of $118,378, which is higher than the $98,146 average annual salary of a senior system administrator.

The top three skills for an infrastructure lead include cloud, architecture and AWS. The most important skills for a senior system administrator are linux, windows server, and troubleshoot.

Infrastructure lead vs senior system administrator overview

	Infrastructure Lead	Senior System Administrator
Yearly salary	$118,378	$98,146
Hourly rate	$56.91	$47.19
Growth rate	5%	5%
Number of jobs	50,358	100,873
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 67%	Bachelor's Degree, 62%
Average age	43	43
Years of experience	2	2

Infrastructure lead vs senior system administrator salary

Infrastructure leads and senior system administrators have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Infrastructure Lead	Senior System Administrator
Average salary	$118,378	$98,146
Salary range	Between $85,000 And $163,000	Between $75,000 And $126,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	California	California
Best paying company	Thumbtack	Cambridge Associates
Best paying industry	Insurance	Finance

Differences between infrastructure lead and senior system administrator education

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

	Infrastructure Lead	Senior System Administrator
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 67%	Bachelor's Degree, 62%
Most common major	Computer Science	Computer Science
Most common college	Stanford University	Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Infrastructure lead vs senior system administrator demographics

Here are the differences between infrastructure leads' and senior system administrators' demographics:

	Infrastructure Lead	Senior System Administrator
Average age	43	43
Gender ratio	Male, 88.3% Female, 11.7%	Male, 89.0% Female, 11.0%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 7.8% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 11.6% Asian, 13.7% White, 61.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%	Black or African American, 8.9% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 12.6% Asian, 11.8% White, 61.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%
LGBT Percentage	9%	9%

Differences between infrastructure lead and senior system administrator duties and responsibilities

Infrastructure lead example responsibilities.

Manage and justify VDI with VMware view.
Manage vendor engagement for vmware consultation, design, and implementation.
Verse in configuring and managing Cisco routers, switches and VoIP networks.
Manage VPN solution (both appliance and Cisco router) with PKI for Verizon.
Manage security management system (SMS) integration projects for SPAWAR / DoD intelligence agencies.
Manage the successful delivery of new campus EMC storage, migrate from existing/older EMC hardware to newer hardware.

Senior system administrator example responsibilities.

Manage and optimize the design and delivery of project associate with AIX arena.
Manage all installs and setup of new servers, and server upgrades to server 2008 R2.
Implement IIS servers for both the internal and external web servers and managing security on all web servers.
Design, implement, and manage a network and domain extension in a remote location via a secure VPN link.
Manage Cisco network equipment including firewalls and switches.
Administer and manage daily backups via Symantec NetBackup.

Infrastructure lead vs senior system administrator skills

Common infrastructure lead skills

Cloud, 10%
Architecture, 8%
AWS, 5%
Linux, 5%
Project Management, 5%
Amazon Web Services, 5%

Common senior system administrator skills

Linux, 7%
Windows Server, 6%
Troubleshoot, 5%
System Administration, 4%
PowerShell, 4%
SAN, 4%

Infrastructure Lead vs. similar jobs

Infrastructure Lead related careers

Infrastructure Lead related jobs

What similar roles do

Zippia Careers
Computer and Mathematical Industry
Infrastructure Lead
Infrastructure Lead vs Senior System Administrator

Updated January 8, 2025

Browse computer and mathematical jobs