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The differences between network infrastructure engineers and network consultants 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 infrastructure engineer and a network consultant. Additionally, a network consultant has an average salary of $89,303, which is higher than the $82,895 average annual salary of a network infrastructure engineer.
The top three skills for a network infrastructure engineer include network infrastructure, switches and cloud. The most important skills for a network consultant are appeals, firewall, and windows server.
| Network Infrastructure Engineer | Network Consultant | |
| Yearly salary | $82,895 | $89,303 |
| Hourly rate | $39.85 | $42.93 |
| Growth rate | 5% | 5% |
| Number of jobs | 67,606 | 58,194 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 63% | Bachelor's Degree, 60% |
| Average age | 43 | 43 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
A network infrastructure engineer designs, deploy, and secures the network of the organization. In this position, you will be required to perform site surveys and audits, ensure the company's network site meets set standards, ensure the networks function with minimum downtime, come up with strategies that help minimize operational costs, and helps the organization streamline the operations by ensuring the different systems work effectively.
Network consultants are information technology (IT) professionals who are responsible for designing, setting up, and maintaining computer networks for an organization or at a client location. These consultants are required to meet with the manager of an organization and network engineers to discuss their networking requirements. By supervising a team of IT professionals, these consultants must administer technical issues and fix infrastructure issues onsite. Network consultants must also maintain documentation for IT infrastructure as well as coordinate network documentation with account managers.
Network infrastructure engineers and network consultants have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Network Infrastructure Engineer | Network Consultant | |
| Average salary | $82,895 | $89,303 |
| Salary range | Between $57,000 And $119,000 | Between $60,000 And $132,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | Mountain View, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | Meta | Dell |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Manufacturing |
There are a few differences between a network infrastructure engineer and a network consultant in terms of educational background:
| Network Infrastructure Engineer | Network Consultant | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 63% | Bachelor's Degree, 60% |
| Most common major | Computer Science | Computer Science |
| Most common college | University of Pennsylvania | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between network infrastructure engineers' and network consultants' demographics:
| Network Infrastructure Engineer | Network Consultant | |
| Average age | 43 | 43 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 92.4% Female, 7.6% | Male, 87.0% Female, 13.0% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 8.7% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 12.4% Asian, 12.0% White, 61.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% | Black or African American, 9.0% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 12.7% Asian, 11.3% White, 61.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% |
| LGBT Percentage | 9% | 9% |