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The differences between sales engineers and solutions architects can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a solutions architect has an average salary of $116,327, which is higher than the $93,727 average annual salary of a sales engineer.
The top three skills for a sales engineer include pre sales, customer service and sales process. The most important skills for a solutions architect are cloud, java, and AWS.
| Sales Engineer | Solutions Architect | |
| Yearly salary | $93,727 | $116,327 |
| Hourly rate | $45.06 | $55.93 |
| Growth rate | 6% | 3% |
| Number of jobs | 132,324 | 107,754 |
| Job satisfaction | 5 | 4.5 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 74% | Bachelor's Degree, 66% |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Years of experience | 6 | - |
A sales engineer is responsible for assisting customers with their technical equipment and advanced scientific product needs. Sales engineers must have excellent knowledge of the scientific processes and component functions of the products they're selling to deliver presentations and orient the customers. Sales engineers' duties also include troubleshooting, identifying product defects, and upgrading systems for better optimization. They are also responsible for analyzing cost estimates documents, performing adjustments as needed, process payments, arranging deliveries, and settling customers' complaints by replacing damaged items or doing refunds.
A solutions architect specializes in creating and implementing software systems that improve business operations and resolve network issues. They are primarily responsible for conducting research and analysis to assess the business's needs, develop specific designs for the company, provide solutions should there be any system issues, and keep company officials informed with all changes and updates. Furthermore, a solutions architect must lead and encourage development teams, stay up to date with the newest trends to continue innovations within the systems, and implement its policies and guidelines.
Sales engineers and solutions architects have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Sales Engineer | Solutions Architect | |
| Average salary | $93,727 | $116,327 |
| Salary range | Between $66,000 And $132,000 | Between $87,000 And $154,000 |
| Highest paying City | Washington, DC | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | Virginia | California |
| Best paying company | Meta | Airbnb |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Retail |
There are a few differences between a sales engineer and a solutions architect in terms of educational background:
| Sales Engineer | Solutions Architect | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 74% | Bachelor's Degree, 66% |
| Most common major | Business | Computer Science |
| Most common college | Northwestern University | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Here are the differences between sales engineers' and solutions architects' demographics:
| Sales Engineer | Solutions Architect | |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 90.1% Female, 9.9% | Male, 86.6% Female, 13.4% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 1.7% Unknown, 6.2% Hispanic or Latino, 8.0% Asian, 7.1% White, 76.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% | Black or African American, 6.2% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 8.8% Asian, 12.0% White, 67.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 11% |