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The differences between network designers 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 network designer and a senior network engineer. Additionally, a senior network engineer has an average salary of $111,707, 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 engineer are switches, BGP, and OSPF.
| Network Designer | Senior Network Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $84,818 | $111,707 |
| Hourly rate | $40.78 | $53.71 |
| Growth rate | 5% | 5% |
| Number of jobs | 66,415 | 35,428 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 57% | Bachelor's Degree, 65% |
| 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.
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.
Network designers and senior network engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Network Designer | Senior Network Engineer | |
| Average salary | $84,818 | $111,707 |
| Salary range | Between $62,000 And $115,000 | Between $85,000 And $145,000 |
| Highest paying City | New York, NY | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | Connecticut | Washington |
| Best paying company | AT&T | The Citadel |
| Best paying industry | Telecommunication | Finance |
There are a few differences between a network designer and a senior network engineer in terms of educational background:
| Network Designer | Senior Network Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 57% | Bachelor's Degree, 65% |
| Most common major | Electrical Engineering | Electrical Engineering |
| Most common college | University of Pennsylvania | - |
Here are the differences between network designers' and senior network engineers' demographics:
| Network Designer | Senior Network Engineer | |
| Average age | 43 | 43 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 87.0% Female, 13.0% | Male, 93.2% Female, 6.8% |
| 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, 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% |