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The differences between lead network engineers and senior network engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a lead network engineer and a senior network engineer. Additionally, a senior network engineer has an average salary of $111,707, which is higher than the $110,170 average annual salary of a lead network engineer.
The top three skills for a lead network engineer include firewall, switches and lan wan. The most important skills for a senior network engineer are switches, BGP, and OSPF.
| Lead Network Engineer | Senior Network Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $110,170 | $111,707 |
| Hourly rate | $52.97 | $53.71 |
| Growth rate | 5% | 5% |
| Number of jobs | 58,355 | 35,428 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 62% | Bachelor's Degree, 65% |
| Average age | 43 | 43 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
A Lead Network Engineer ensures network performance through supervising the building of net configurations and connections. They are responsible for securing network systems.
A senior network engineer is responsible for managing the organization's network infrastructure, handling advanced network issues, upgrading the system's design for optimization, configuring network features, and ensuring the network's highest security measures to avoid unauthorized access and suspicious activities. Senior network engineers work with network architects to implement network designs, run diagnostic tests, and create network solution reports for review and recovery reference. A senior network engineer must have excellent communication and organization skills and broad knowledge of the technology industry, programming languages, and system codes.
Lead network engineers and senior network engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Lead Network Engineer | Senior Network Engineer | |
| Average salary | $110,170 | $111,707 |
| Salary range | Between $85,000 And $142,000 | Between $85,000 And $145,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | Washington |
| Best paying company | Meta | The Citadel |
| Best paying industry | Finance | Finance |
There are a few differences between a lead network engineer and a senior network engineer in terms of educational background:
| Lead Network Engineer | Senior Network Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 62% | Bachelor's Degree, 65% |
| Most common major | Electrical Engineering | Electrical Engineering |
| Most common college | Northeastern University | - |
Here are the differences between lead network engineers' and senior network engineers' demographics:
| Lead Network Engineer | Senior Network Engineer | |
| Average age | 43 | 43 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 90.9% Female, 9.1% | Male, 93.2% Female, 6.8% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 8.8% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 12.5% Asian, 11.3% White, 62.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% | Black or African American, 8.2% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 11.9% Asian, 13.5% White, 61.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% |
| LGBT Percentage | 9% | 9% |