According to Elon Musk, we can find new solutions to old problems by creating through first principles, which is an application of breaking down the scientific requirements in solving an issue without comparing or adopting the status quo. From the achievements of Elon Musk, we can extract the immense value in learning how to engineer things and systems. Being a senior engineer is one pathway toward understanding and creating systems.
Daily, a senior engineer is involved in reviewing design plans, communicating with clients on work specifications, maintaining engineering processes, and developing a workable budget. Besides that, they perform research, undertake diagnostic testing, and assist in employee onboarding.
Employers require senior engineers to have a bachelor's degree in engineering or STEM-related field, as well as at least two to three years of relevant work experience. This role earns, on average, $48 per hour and suits individuals who are technically oriented and enjoy problem solving.
Senior Engineer Overview
Working as a Senior Engineer
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a senior engineer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $49.51 an hour? That's $102,989 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 4% and produce 12,800 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Senior Engineer Do
There are certain skills that many senior engineers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed creativity, listening skills and math skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a senior engineer, we found that a lot of resumes listed 9.4% of senior engineers included python, while 7.3% of resumes included architecture, and 5.4% of resumes included java. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the senior engineer job title. But what industry to start with? Most senior engineers actually find jobs in the technology and manufacturing industries.
How To Become a Senior Engineer
If you're interested in becoming a senior engineer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 42.9% of senior engineers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 37.8% of senior engineers have master's degrees. Even though most senior engineers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a senior engineer. When we researched the most common majors for a senior engineer, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on senior engineer resumes include doctoral degree degrees or associate degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a senior engineer. In fact, many senior engineer jobs require experience in a role such as engineer. Meanwhile, many senior engineers also have previous career experience in roles such as project engineer or software engineer.
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Senior Engineer Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of senior software engineer you might progress to a role such as director of software development eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title director of software development.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Senior Engineer
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Randstad Senior Front End Engineer Senior Front End Engineer | Randstad Randstad | 01/30/2021 01/30/2021 | $125,22001/30/2021 $125,220 |
Equinix, Inc. Senior Os/Hw Engineer Senior Os/Hw Engineer | Equinix, Inc. Equinix, Inc. | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $92,00001/29/2021 $92,000 |
Equinix, Inc. Senior Os/Hw Engineer Senior Os/Hw Engineer | Equinix, Inc. Equinix, Inc. | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $92,00001/29/2021 $92,000 |
Randstad SR. Front End Engineer SR. Front End Engineer | Randstad Randstad | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $116,87201/29/2021 $116,872 |
Equinix Senior Os/Hw Engineer Senior Os/Hw Engineer | Equinix Equinix | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $92,00001/29/2021 $92,000 |
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Senior Engineer Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Senior Engineer. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Senior Engineer Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Senior Engineer resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Senior Engineers
1. Michigan Technological University
Houghton, MI • Public
2. Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA • Public
3. Cornell University
Ithaca, NY • Private
4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA • Private
5. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
6. Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY • Private
7. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
8. Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD • Private
9. Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA • Private
10. Harvard University
Cambridge, MA • Private
Top Skills For a Senior Engineer
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 9.4% of senior engineers listed python on their resume, but soft skills such as creativity and listening skills are important as well.
- Python, 9.4%
- Architecture, 7.3%
- Java, 5.4%
- Javascript, 4.7%
- API, 4.2%
- Other Skills, 69.0% See All Senior Engineer Skills
Best States For a Senior Engineer
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a senior engineer. The best states for people in this position are California, Delaware, Arizona, and Washington. Senior engineers make the most in California with an average salary of $118,086. Whereas in Delaware and Arizona, they would average $109,051 and $108,149, respectively. While senior engineers would only make an average of $105,235 in Washington, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. California
$118,087
Avg. Salary
2. District of Columbia
$116,671
Avg. Salary
3. Washington
$105,236
Avg. Salary
How Do Senior Engineer Rate Their Jobs?
Top Senior Engineer Employers
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ senior engineers and discovered their number of senior engineer opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Samsung was the best, especially with an average salary of $108,302. Target follows up with an average salary of $128,762, and then comes The Dow Chemical Company with an average of $91,933. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a senior engineer. The employers include Consumers Energy, Science Applications International ., and New Relic
Senior Engineer Videos
