Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between network designers 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 designer and a senior network administrator. Additionally, a senior network administrator has an average salary of $89,169, which is higher than the $84,818 average annual salary of a network designer.
The top three skills for a network designer include network design, PC and OSPF. The most important skills for a senior network administrator are switches, routers, and troubleshoot.
| Network Designer | Senior Network Administrator | |
| Yearly salary | $84,818 | $89,169 |
| Hourly rate | $40.78 | $42.87 |
| Growth rate | 5% | 5% |
| Number of jobs | 66,415 | 110,027 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 57% | Bachelor's Degree, 58% |
| Average age | 43 | 43 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
Network designers are the people in an organization who assess a company's network requirements and design a network that meets the needs. The responsibilities of this position are designing and submitting plans for the network to management, making updates and upgrading the software and hardware where needed, incorporating security features into the design, configuring multiple types of connections, e.g., printers, servers and supporting specialized services like specific point virtualization through cloud computing.
Senior Network Administrators provide system and network solutions for their organizations. They supervise the functioning of networking equipment and follow strict maintenance standards.
Network designers and senior network administrators have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Network Designer | Senior Network Administrator | |
| Average salary | $84,818 | $89,169 |
| Salary range | Between $62,000 And $115,000 | Between $68,000 And $115,000 |
| Highest paying City | New York, NY | San Mateo, CA |
| Highest paying state | Connecticut | California |
| Best paying company | AT&T | Tesoro |
| Best paying industry | Telecommunication | Finance |
There are a few differences between a network designer and a senior network administrator in terms of educational background:
| Network Designer | Senior Network Administrator | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 57% | Bachelor's Degree, 58% |
| Most common major | Electrical Engineering | Computer Science |
| Most common college | University of Pennsylvania | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Here are the differences between network designers' and senior network administrators' demographics:
| Network Designer | Senior Network Administrator | |
| Average age | 43 | 43 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 87.0% Female, 13.0% | Male, 91.7% Female, 8.3% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 8.0% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 11.8% Asian, 13.7% White, 61.2% 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% |