Network design engineer vs senior network administrator

The differences between network design engineers and senior network administrators can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a network design engineer and a senior network administrator. Additionally, a network design engineer has an average salary of $101,135, which is higher than the $89,169 average annual salary of a senior network administrator.

The top three skills for a network design engineer include network design, switches and juniper. The most important skills for a senior network administrator are switches, routers, and troubleshoot.

Network design engineer vs senior network administrator overview

	Network Design Engineer	Senior Network Administrator
Yearly salary	$101,135	$89,169
Hourly rate	$48.62	$42.87
Growth rate	5%	5%
Number of jobs	80,300	110,027
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 62%	Bachelor's Degree, 58%
Average age	43	43
Years of experience	2	2

Network design engineer vs senior network administrator salary

Network design engineers and senior network administrators have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Network Design Engineer	Senior Network Administrator
Average salary	$101,135	$89,169
Salary range	Between $76,000 And $132,000	Between $68,000 And $115,000
Highest paying City	Bothell, WA	San Mateo, CA
Highest paying state	Washington	California
Best paying company	Google	Tesoro
Best paying industry	Technology	Finance

Differences between network design engineer and senior network administrator education

There are a few differences between a network design engineer and a senior network administrator in terms of educational background:

	Network Design Engineer	Senior Network Administrator
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 62%	Bachelor's Degree, 58%
Most common major	Electrical Engineering	Computer Science
Most common college	Northeastern University	Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Network design engineer vs senior network administrator demographics

Here are the differences between network design engineers' and senior network administrators' demographics:

	Network Design Engineer	Senior Network Administrator
Average age	43	43
Gender ratio	Male, 85.5% Female, 14.5%	Male, 91.7% Female, 8.3%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 8.5% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 12.2% Asian, 12.3% White, 61.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%	Black or African American, 9.0% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 12.7% Asian, 10.1% White, 62.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%
LGBT Percentage	9%	9%

Differences between network design engineer and senior network administrator duties and responsibilities

Network design engineer example responsibilities.

Manage efficient T1 utilization thresholds in order to balance customer demand and budget constraints.
Implement HSRP on different location of office on the switched network and managing the entire multilayer switch network.
Utilize advanced encryption devices to secure communications between all locations manage by the department.
Experience on designing and troubleshooting of complex BGP and OSPF routing problems.
Key contributions include troubleshooting of complex LAN /WAN connectivity issues that includes EIGRP.
Configure, install and troubleshoot CISCO base networks (routers, terminal servers).

Senior network administrator example responsibilities.

Lead IP management specialist and assist with management of DHCP scopes and reservations.
Establish and manage SharePoint base intranet for departmental and interdepartmental support.
Configure and manage SQL database archival requests for automate timely data submissions.
Configure and manage multiple data and application servers and maintain SQL relational databases.
Prioritize and manage servicing of customer trouble calls in locally develop tracking database.
Configure and manage company routers and switches in addition to VPN configuration and policy enforcement.

Network design engineer vs senior network administrator skills

Common network design engineer skills

Network Design, 8%
Switches, 5%
Juniper, 4%
Routers, 4%
Network Infrastructure, 4%
Troubleshoot, 4%

Common senior network administrator skills

Switches, 8%
Routers, 5%
Troubleshoot, 5%
Windows Server, 4%
Network Infrastructure, 4%
Lan Wan, 4%

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Network Design Engineer vs Senior Network Administrator

Updated January 8, 2025

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