How To Become A Senior Architect: What It Is and Career Path

What is a senior architect and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Christy Graves

Senior architects are architects with extensive industry experience and can serve as mentors, managers, and advisors. They develop and interpret various structural designs. Senior architects are tasked with evaluating and designing architectural and engineering plans. Also, they oversee the work of other architects and recommend improvements or schedule workshops as required. Furthermore, they guide subcontractors like builders, plumbers, and electricians and assist them in interpreting design specifications. The architects ensure all plans adhere to relevant health and safety regulations.

Senior architects hold at least a bachelor's degree in a field like architecture, engineering, or design. For this role, you will need a state license and several years of experience. You must possess leadership, networking, attention to detail, interpersonal, analytical, and communication skills. You must also be proficient in computer-aided design software. Senior architects earn as high as $197,000 and a low of $101,000. The average salary for the role is $140,946.

What general advice would you give to a senior architect?

Christy Graves

Professor/Program Manager, Seminole State College of Florida

I would advise the graduate to learn from everyone they work with within the workplace environment. Even though a degree in architectural engineering technology is valuable, it's impossible to learn everything you need to know to be successful in the industry by taking classes in school and earning a degree. Do not be afraid to ask others for help when you aren't sure about the task you've been assigned to do. In addition, keep up with new technology. Remember, learning should be a lifetime pursuit. It shouldn't end with earning a degree.

ScoreSenior ArchitectUS Average

Salary

7.2

Avg. Salary $91,624

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.2

Growth rate 3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.6

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.32%

Asian 16.09%

Black or African American 2.30%

Hispanic or Latino 11.88%

Unknown 3.95%

White 65.46%

Gender

female 10.95%

male 89.05%

Age - 45

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 45

Stress level

7.2

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

10.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.5

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a senior architect

Explore senior architect education requirements

Most common senior architect degrees

Bachelor's

69.0 %

Master's

23.0 %

Associate

3.2 %

Start to develop specific senior architect skills

Skills	Percentages
Cloud	8.19%
Java	6.25%
Infrastructure	5.49%
Emerging Technologies	4.87%
AWS	4.82%

Complete relevant senior architect training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 2-4 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New senior architects learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a senior architect based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real senior architect resumes.

Research senior architect duties and responsibilities

Manage software integration using middle-ware and other enterprise software such as CTI systems, workforce management systems, and ERP systems.
Develop several custom Java and Perl systems used to manage operations of critical systems.
Manage the development infrastructure, change control, configuration items and application security utilizing knowledge of information resource management.
Coordinate project management, solutions configuration, integration capabilities, and cloud computing functionality.

Get senior architect experience

Generally, it takes 2-4 years to become a senior architect. The most common roles before becoming a senior architect include architect, senior software engineer team lead and consultant.

Prepare your senior architect resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your senior architect resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a senior architect resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable senior architect resume templates

Build a professional senior architect resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your senior architect resume.