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The differences between lead infrastructure engineers and chief engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 1-2 years to become a lead infrastructure engineer, becoming a chief engineer takes usually requires 4-6 years. Additionally, a lead infrastructure engineer has an average salary of $120,774, which is higher than the $108,050 average annual salary of a chief engineer.
The top three skills for a lead infrastructure engineer include java, cloud and architecture. The most important skills for a chief engineer are HVAC, plumbing, and customer service.
| Lead Infrastructure Engineer | Chief Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $120,774 | $108,050 |
| Hourly rate | $58.06 | $51.95 |
| Growth rate | 5% | 2% |
| Number of jobs | 89,949 | 88,473 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 67% | Bachelor's Degree, 49% |
| Average age | 43 | 41 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 6 |
An infrastructure engineer acts as the one responsible for ensuring that all project objectives can be obtained and implemented correctly. They are the one who monitors, reviews and evaluates the current system policy to determines or identify what needs to be removed or replaced. Often, an Infra Engineer checks the computer application like the Windows, Mac Operating System, and Linux that will allow them to analyze and examines what needs for changing or fixing.
A chief engineer is responsible for monitoring the engineering department's overall operations, ensuring performance efficiency, and everyone's strict compliance with the safety standards and regulatory procedures. Chief engineers manage the distribution of the tasks to the team, communicate with the clients and management for instructions and specifications, monitor expenses and forecast sales reports, analyze and approve designs, negotiate contracts, and process disputes. A chief engineer must have excellent knowledge of the engineering disciplines and exemplary leadership skills to handle the team's performance towards the company's objectives.
Lead infrastructure engineers and chief engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Lead Infrastructure Engineer | Chief Engineer | |
| Average salary | $120,774 | $108,050 |
| Salary range | Between $91,000 And $160,000 | Between $65,000 And $177,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | Palo Alto, CA |
| Highest paying state | Idaho | California |
| Best paying company | Apple | BGC Partners |
| Best paying industry | Finance | Transportation |
There are a few differences between a lead infrastructure engineer and a chief engineer in terms of educational background:
| Lead Infrastructure Engineer | Chief Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 67% | Bachelor's Degree, 49% |
| Most common major | Computer Science | Mechanical Engineering |
| Most common college | University of Pennsylvania | Michigan Technological University |
Here are the differences between lead infrastructure engineers' and chief engineers' demographics:
| Lead Infrastructure Engineer | Chief Engineer | |
| Average age | 43 | 41 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 94.1% Female, 5.9% | Male, 96.2% Female, 3.8% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 8.0% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 11.7% Asian, 13.9% White, 61.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% | Black or African American, 3.5% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 9.9% Asian, 10.2% White, 71.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% |
| LGBT Percentage | 9% | 5% |