Operations system administrator vs lead administrator

The differences between operations system administrators and lead administrators can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both an operations system administrator and a lead administrator. Additionally, a lead administrator has an average salary of $94,444, which is higher than the $76,891 average annual salary of an operations system administrator.

The top three skills for an operations system administrator include technical support, linux and customer service. The most important skills for a lead administrator are payroll, office equipment, and expense reports.

Operations system administrator vs lead administrator overview

	Operations System Administrator	Lead Administrator
Yearly salary	$76,891	$94,444
Hourly rate	$36.97	$45.41
Growth rate	5%	5%
Number of jobs	173,494	57,229
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 58%	Bachelor's Degree, 53%
Average age	43	43
Years of experience	2	2

What does an operations system administrator do?

In the information technology industry, an Operations System Administrator is responsible for overseeing and maintaining computer systems, including software, hardware, and applications. They are responsible for supervising staff, spearheading installations and repairs, troubleshooting problems, diagnosing and resolving technical issues and concerns, and ensuring data security and safety by implementing back-ups, firewalls, and other protocols. Moreover, as an operations system administrator, it is essential to lead and encourage staff to reach goals while implementing standards and regulations to maintain the smooth flow of operations.

What does a lead administrator do?

Lead administrators are information technology (IT) professionals who are responsible for managing and troubleshooting departmental computer operations of an organization. These IT professionals must manage and approve access to their online score data as well as create new users directly in the portal to allow access to the score data. They manage the office supplies of the organization while processing salary management and executive payroll every month. Lead administrators must also coordinate with technicians for hardware, printer, and cabling repairs.

Operations system administrator vs lead administrator salary

Operations system administrators and lead administrators have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Operations System Administrator	Lead Administrator
Average salary	$76,891	$94,444
Salary range	Between $59,000 And $98,000	Between $63,000 And $141,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	Richmond, CA
Highest paying state	California	Oregon
Best paying company	PayPal	Koch Industries
Best paying industry	Utilities	Finance

Differences between operations system administrator and lead administrator education

There are a few differences between an operations system administrator and a lead administrator in terms of educational background:

	Operations System Administrator	Lead Administrator
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 58%	Bachelor's Degree, 53%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	Stanford University	Stanford University

Operations system administrator vs lead administrator demographics

Here are the differences between operations system administrators' and lead administrators' demographics:

	Operations System Administrator	Lead Administrator
Average age	43	43
Gender ratio	Male, 76.2% Female, 23.8%	Male, 37.2% Female, 62.8%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 9.0% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 12.7% Asian, 9.5% White, 63.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%	Black or African American, 9.2% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 12.9% Asian, 9.5% White, 63.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%
LGBT Percentage	9%	9%

Differences between operations system administrator and lead administrator duties and responsibilities

Operations system administrator example responsibilities.

Manage VOIP Digium phones for clients.
Manage and update share drive and SharePoint.
Manage DNS, SMTP for Webservers contacting customers.
Manage LDAP accounts on across the enterprise system.
Manage machines and accounts in active directory and dhcp.
Lead a team of 5 engineers providing PC support to 1,000 customers and implement PC disaster recovery efforts for 400 customers.

Lead administrator example responsibilities.

Manage and coordinate office operations and procedures to include payroll preparation, information management/filing systems, and supply requisitions.
Support and troubleshoot all claims questions and provide assistance with more advance issues.
Provide initiatives and suggestions for performance tuning of applications, script auto deployment plans, troubleshoot complex production issues.
Create and implement migration plans to new SharePoint environments.
Provide application training for company's custom provisioning application.
Implement SSO configuration and user provisioning on IDM environments.

Operations system administrator vs lead administrator skills

Common operations system administrator skills

Technical Support, 9%
Linux, 8%
Customer Service, 5%
VMware, 4%
SQL, 4%
Windows Server, 4%

Common lead administrator skills

Payroll, 10%
Office Equipment, 8%
Expense Reports, 6%
Windows, 6%
Data Entry, 5%
PowerPoint, 5%

Operations System Administrator vs. similar jobs

Operations System Administrator related careers

Operations System Administrator related jobs

What similar roles do

Zippia Careers
Computer and Mathematical Industry
Operations System Administrator
Operations System Administrator vs Lead Administrator

Updated January 8, 2025

Browse computer and mathematical jobs