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The differences between senior applications engineers and software engineers-consultant can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 4-6 years to become a senior applications engineer, becoming a software engineer-consultant takes usually requires 2-4 years. Additionally, a software engineer-consultant has an average salary of $113,987, which is higher than the $107,989 average annual salary of a senior applications engineer.
The top three skills for a senior applications engineer include java, C++ and database. The most important skills for a software engineer-consultant are java, python, and architecture.
| Senior Applications Engineer | Software Engineer-Consultant | |
| Yearly salary | $107,989 | $113,987 |
| Hourly rate | $51.92 | $54.80 |
| Growth rate | 2% | 21% |
| Number of jobs | 274,466 | 317,033 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 69% | Bachelor's Degree, 71% |
| Average age | 41 | 39 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 4 |
A senior applications engineer specializes in designing and developing a variety of applications and systems, ensuring quality and efficiency. Their responsibilities typically revolve around utilizing feedback and client needs when making decisions, creating test structures for applications, performing installment and repairs, troubleshooting, and performing regular maintenance checks and upgrades. Furthermore, as a senior applications engineer, it is essential to lead and encourage the engineering team to reach goals, all while implementing the company's policies and regulations.
A software engineer consultant develops and recommends strategies to optimize a company's software engineering operations. Their responsibilities revolve around conducting extensive research and analysis to find new opportunities, performing software evaluations and risk assessments, identifying the strengths and weaknesses of existing processes, and developing solutions against problem areas. Through the findings of their research, a software engineer consultant draws conclusions and recommendations that will help the company to reach their short and long-term goals and resolve issues or concerns.
Senior applications engineers and software engineers-consultant have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Senior Applications Engineer | Software Engineer-Consultant | |
| Average salary | $107,989 | $113,987 |
| Salary range | Between $84,000 And $138,000 | Between $85,000 And $152,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | Foster City, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | Netflix | Advent Software |
| Best paying industry | Insurance | Insurance |
There are a few differences between a senior applications engineer and a software engineer-consultant in terms of educational background:
| Senior Applications Engineer | Software Engineer-Consultant | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 69% | Bachelor's Degree, 71% |
| Most common major | Electrical Engineering | Computer Science |
| Most common college | Stanford University | Harvard University |
Here are the differences between senior applications engineers' and software engineers-consultant' demographics:
| Senior Applications Engineer | Software Engineer-Consultant | |
| Average age | 41 | 39 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 88.9% Female, 11.1% | Male, 86.1% Female, 13.9% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 3.1% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 7.9% Asian, 17.1% White, 67.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% | Black or African American, 4.7% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 8.4% Asian, 29.7% White, 52.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 5% | 8% |