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The differences between senior application architects and software architects can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a senior application architect and a software architect. Additionally, a senior application architect has an average salary of $121,139, which is higher than the $114,406 average annual salary of a software architect.
The top three skills for a senior application architect include cloud, java and API. The most important skills for a software architect are java, architecture, and cloud.
| Senior Application Architect | Software Architect | |
| Yearly salary | $121,139 | $114,406 |
| Hourly rate | $58.24 | $55.00 |
| Growth rate | 21% | 21% |
| Number of jobs | 283,741 | 319,594 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 67% | Bachelor's Degree, 66% |
| Average age | 39 | 39 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 4 |
Senior application architects are information technology (IT) professionals who are responsible for designing and developing IT applications architecture solutions to business problems of an organization. These architects must utilize new technologies that can improve existing systems and ensure the proper synchronization of software and system architectures. They must lead a team of professionals in application development to build plans for capacity planning, application performance, and endurance testing. Senior application architects must also work with customers to gather and analyze their functional and business requirements.
A Software Architect develops new programs for a variety of technological devices for businesses, computer games, mobile networks, and/or operating systems. They ensure architectural integrity and consistency across the entire product and work closely with executives to explain the benefits of the software.
Senior application architects and software architects have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Senior Application Architect | Software Architect | |
| Average salary | $121,139 | $114,406 |
| Salary range | Between $93,000 And $156,000 | Between $82,000 And $158,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | NVIDIA | Aspiration |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Health Care |
There are a few differences between a senior application architect and a software architect in terms of educational background:
| Senior Application Architect | Software Architect | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 67% | Bachelor's Degree, 66% |
| Most common major | Computer Science | Computer Science |
| Most common college | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Harvard University |
Here are the differences between senior application architects' and software architects' demographics:
| Senior Application Architect | Software Architect | |
| Average age | 39 | 39 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 89.1% Female, 10.9% | Male, 93.8% Female, 6.2% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 4.6% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 8.4% Asian, 29.8% White, 52.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | Black or African American, 4.3% Unknown, 4.8% Hispanic or Latino, 8.1% Asian, 30.0% White, 52.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 8% | 8% |