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The differences between lead engineers and team leaders can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 4-6 years to become both a lead engineer and a team leader. Additionally, a lead engineer has an average salary of $84,927, which is higher than the $68,817 average annual salary of a team leader.
The top three skills for a lead engineer include java, python and architecture. The most important skills for a team leader are customer service, ladders, and patients.
| Lead Engineer | Team Leader | |
| Yearly salary | $84,927 | $68,817 |
| Hourly rate | $40.83 | $33.09 |
| Growth rate | 2% | 8% |
| Number of jobs | 301,777 | 197,336 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 5 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 66% | Bachelor's Degree, 50% |
| Average age | 41 | 43 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 6 |
A lead engineer's duties vary on their line of work or industry of employment. Typically, their responsibilities will revolve around overseeing the progress of operations and performance of the workforce, ensuring that everything is running smoothly. They are also responsible for addressing issues and concerns, assessing risks, monitoring the budget, coordinating with clients and architects, and even training workers. Furthermore, as a lead engineer, it is crucial to conduct regular inspections to ensure the quality of work and maintain a safe environment for all workers.
Team leaders are responsible for managing a team for a specific project or work component. They primarily guide the team members and ensure that they are still working towards the set goals. Team leaders create strategies to reach goals, cascade the goals and strategies to team members, assign tasks, conduct periodic check-ups on the roadmap towards the goals, foster an engaging work environment, motivate and coach team members, monitor team performance, evaluate the strategies and come up with mitigating plans as needed. They are also responsible for reporting the team's progress to higher management.
Lead engineers and team leaders have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Lead Engineer | Team Leader | |
| Average salary | $84,927 | $68,817 |
| Salary range | Between $60,000 And $120,000 | Between $37,000 And $126,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | New York, NY |
| Highest paying state | Hawaii | Alaska |
| Best paying company | Meta | Ropes & Gray |
| Best paying industry | Automotive | - |
There are a few differences between a lead engineer and a team leader in terms of educational background:
| Lead Engineer | Team Leader | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 66% | Bachelor's Degree, 50% |
| Most common major | Mechanical Engineering | Business |
| Most common college | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | SUNY College of Technology at Delhi |
Here are the differences between lead engineers' and team leaders' demographics:
| Lead Engineer | Team Leader | |
| Average age | 41 | 43 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 90.8% Female, 9.2% | Male, 55.0% Female, 45.0% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 3.1% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 7.8% Asian, 16.8% White, 67.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% | Black or African American, 8.9% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 17.0% Asian, 7.2% White, 61.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% |
| LGBT Percentage | 5% | 9% |