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The differences between senior data center engineers and senior network engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a senior data center engineer and a senior network engineer. Additionally, a senior network engineer has an average salary of $111,707, which is higher than the $103,215 average annual salary of a senior data center engineer.
The top three skills for a senior data center engineer include windows, vmware esxi and nexus. The most important skills for a senior network engineer are switches, BGP, and OSPF.
| Senior Data Center Engineer | Senior Network Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $103,215 | $111,707 |
| Hourly rate | $49.62 | $53.71 |
| Growth rate | 5% | 5% |
| Number of jobs | 139,255 | 35,428 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 55% | Bachelor's Degree, 65% |
| Average age | 43 | 43 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
A senior data center engineer specializes in designing and developing systems and networks to optimize data center operations. It is their responsibility to set guidelines and objectives, identify and understand the needs of facilities, conduct research and analyses, develop prototypes and test structures, troubleshoot problems, perform installations and repairs, and conduct regular maintenance checks on systems. Moreover, a senior data center engineer oversees projects and leads junior engineers to reach goals, all while implementing the company's data security policies and regulations.
A senior network engineer is responsible for managing the organization's network infrastructure, handling advanced network issues, upgrading the system's design for optimization, configuring network features, and ensuring the network's highest security measures to avoid unauthorized access and suspicious activities. Senior network engineers work with network architects to implement network designs, run diagnostic tests, and create network solution reports for review and recovery reference. A senior network engineer must have excellent communication and organization skills and broad knowledge of the technology industry, programming languages, and system codes.
Senior data center engineers and senior network engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Senior Data Center Engineer | Senior Network Engineer | |
| Average salary | $103,215 | $111,707 |
| Salary range | Between $75,000 And $140,000 | Between $85,000 And $145,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | Idaho | Washington |
| Best paying company | CDW | The Citadel |
| Best paying industry | Professional | Finance |
There are a few differences between a senior data center engineer and a senior network engineer in terms of educational background:
| Senior Data Center Engineer | Senior Network Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 55% | Bachelor's Degree, 65% |
| Most common major | Electrical Engineering | Electrical Engineering |
| Most common college | Northeastern University | - |
Here are the differences between senior data center engineers' and senior network engineers' demographics:
| Senior Data Center Engineer | Senior Network Engineer | |
| Average age | 43 | 43 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 97.9% Female, 2.1% | Male, 93.2% Female, 6.8% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 8.9% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 12.6% Asian, 11.0% White, 62.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% | Black or African American, 8.2% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 11.9% Asian, 13.5% White, 61.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% |
| LGBT Percentage | 9% | 9% |