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The differences between senior database engineers and lead database administrators 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 database engineer and a lead database administrator. Additionally, a senior database engineer has an average salary of $123,540, which is higher than the $114,426 average annual salary of a lead database administrator.
The top three skills for a senior database engineer include AWS, java and ETL. The most important skills for a lead database administrator are DBA, PL/SQL, and linux.
| Senior Database Engineer | Lead Database Administrator | |
| Yearly salary | $123,540 | $114,426 |
| Hourly rate | $59.39 | $55.01 |
| Growth rate | 9% | 9% |
| Number of jobs | 110,265 | 58,263 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 63% | Bachelor's Degree, 64% |
| Average age | 46 | 46 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 4 |
A senior database engineer specializes in designing and developing databases for a company. Among their responsibilities include identifying and understanding the company's needs, creating and maintaining database projects and programs, writing scripts, troubleshooting errors, fixing bugs, and performing upgrades. They must also provide technical support to employees, addressing and resolving issues promptly and efficiently. Furthermore, as a senior engineer, it is essential to lead and serve as a mentor to junior engineers while implementing the company's policies and regulations.
A lead database administrator or DBA serves as a primary technologist in an organization or company. Lead database administrators are technical experts in terms of database and middleware technology design, tuning, configuration, troubleshooting, and building. They use specialized software for data storage and organization. Their role may also include database migration, troubleshooting, performance monitoring, and data recovery. Among the necessary skills for this job include problem-solving, organizational, interpersonal, and communication.
Senior database engineers and lead database administrators have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Senior Database Engineer | Lead Database Administrator | |
| Average salary | $123,540 | $114,426 |
| Salary range | Between $95,000 And $159,000 | Between $88,000 And $148,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | Foster City, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | Washington |
| Best paying company | Amazon | |
| Best paying industry | Internet | Retail |
There are a few differences between a senior database engineer and a lead database administrator in terms of educational background:
| Senior Database Engineer | Lead Database Administrator | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 63% | Bachelor's Degree, 64% |
| Most common major | Computer Science | Computer Science |
| Most common college | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Here are the differences between senior database engineers' and lead database administrators' demographics:
| Senior Database Engineer | Lead Database Administrator | |
| Average age | 46 | 46 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 85.6% Female, 14.4% | Male, 80.3% Female, 19.7% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 7.4% Unknown, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino, 8.8% Asian, 23.4% White, 54.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5% | Black or African American, 6.5% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 8.3% Asian, 27.3% White, 52.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 6% |