Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between senior application architects and systems architects can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a senior application architect has an average salary of $121,139, which is higher than the $103,764 average annual salary of a systems architect.
The top three skills for a senior application architect include cloud, java and API. The most important skills for a systems architect are cloud, java, and python.
| Senior Application Architect | Systems Architect | |
| Yearly salary | $121,139 | $103,764 |
| Hourly rate | $58.24 | $49.89 |
| Growth rate | 21% | 5% |
| Number of jobs | 283,741 | 232,582 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 67% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Average age | 39 | 44 |
| Years of experience | 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 systems architect specializes in designing and developing computer networks and systems for company operations. Typically, their responsibilities revolve around conducting research and analysis to identify a company's needs, devising strategies to reach particular goals, improving existing systems, and implementing solutions for optimal processes. A systems architect must also monitor the progress of all implementations, prepare progress reports and presentations, provide technical support as needed, and train new workforce members, all while adhering to the company's policies and regulations, including vision and mission.
Senior application architects and systems architects have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Senior Application Architect | Systems Architect | |
| Average salary | $121,139 | $103,764 |
| Salary range | Between $93,000 And $156,000 | Between $76,000 And $141,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | Cupertino, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | NVIDIA | Airbnb |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Automotive |
There are a few differences between a senior application architect and a systems architect in terms of educational background:
| Senior Application Architect | Systems Architect | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 67% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Most common major | Computer Science | Computer Science |
| Most common college | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Here are the differences between senior application architects' and systems architects' demographics:
| Senior Application Architect | Systems Architect | |
| Average age | 39 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 89.1% Female, 10.9% | Male, 90.2% Female, 9.8% |
| 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, 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 | 8% | 11% |