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The differences between senior design projects and senior principal engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 4-6 years to become both a senior design project and a senior principal engineer. Additionally, a senior principal engineer has an average salary of $130,642, which is higher than the $92,208 average annual salary of a senior design project.
The top three skills for a senior design project include solidworks, medical devices and prototype. The most important skills for a senior principal engineer are python, architecture, and java.
| Senior Design Project | Senior Principal Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $92,208 | $130,642 |
| Hourly rate | $44.33 | $62.81 |
| Growth rate | 2% | 2% |
| Number of jobs | 70,865 | 272,459 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 86% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Average age | 41 | 41 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 6 |
A senior design project worker is responsible for developing digital content designs and applications using various software tools, following clients' specifications and requests. Senior designers must be highly-organizational and communicative, especially on providing progress updates to the client and performing multiple design adjustments as needed. A senior designer should create and recommend designs based on the clients' budget goals without compromising the quality of the output. Senior design projects work closely with the design engineering team to maintain flawless layouts and achieve client satisfaction.
A senior principal engineer is responsible for leading engineering tasks within an organization and reports project updates to senior management. Senior principal engineers develop strategic methods and principles to improve the technical stability and efficiency of the company's systems, creating business proposals according to clients' specifications, and negotiating contracts with suppliers and other service providers. They also train new staff and identify innovations and business opportunities that would generate more revenue resources for the company.
Senior design projects and senior principal engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Senior Design Project | Senior Principal Engineer | |
| Average salary | $92,208 | $130,642 |
| Salary range | Between $70,000 And $120,000 | Between $93,000 And $182,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | Washington | California |
| Best paying company | HDR | Airbnb |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Professional |
There are a few differences between a senior design project and a senior principal engineer in terms of educational background:
| Senior Design Project | Senior Principal Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 86% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Most common major | Mechanical Engineering | Electrical Engineering |
| Most common college | Georgia Institute of Technology | Michigan Technological University |
Here are the differences between senior design projects' and senior principal engineers' demographics:
| Senior Design Project | Senior Principal Engineer | |
| Average age | 41 | 41 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 80.3% Female, 19.7% | Male, 88.2% Female, 11.8% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 3.1% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 7.9% Asian, 17.0% White, 67.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% | Black or African American, 3.1% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 7.9% Asian, 17.2% White, 67.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% |
| LGBT Percentage | 5% | 5% |