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The differences between senior enterprise architects and principal architects can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a principal architect has an average salary of $133,276, which is higher than the $129,751 average annual salary of a senior enterprise architect.
The top three skills for a senior enterprise architect include cloud, emerging technologies and java. The most important skills for a principal architect are cloud, infrastructure, and emerging technologies.
| Senior Enterprise Architect | Principal Architect | |
| Yearly salary | $129,751 | $133,276 |
| Hourly rate | $62.38 | $64.08 |
| Growth rate | - | 3% |
| Number of jobs | 88,722 | 118,908 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 4 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 64% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Years of experience | - | - |
Senior Enterprise Architects are responsible for directing and optimizing an organization's IT infrastructure and business operations. Their duties include implementing business architecture models, providing systems process guidelines, establishing compliance architecture such as change control and metadata management, as well as evaluate accounting, talent recruitment, engineering systems models for vulnerabilities. Other duties include supervising development programs for employees, suggest cost-improvement strategies, and create a build versus buy plan of action. Senior Enterprise Architects must be well versed in the Enterprise Architecture Framework in implementing a holistic solution.
Principal Architects manage all design work at an architecture firm. They ensure that all work is of high professional quality and manage the activity of other design professionals.
Senior enterprise architects and principal architects have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Senior Enterprise Architect | Principal Architect | |
| Average salary | $129,751 | $133,276 |
| Salary range | Between $98,000 And $171,000 | Between $97,000 And $181,000 |
| Highest paying City | Dublin, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | PayPal | |
| Best paying industry | Finance | Technology |
There are a few differences between a senior enterprise architect and a principal architect in terms of educational background:
| Senior Enterprise Architect | Principal Architect | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 64% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Most common major | Computer Science | Architecture |
| Most common college | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Here are the differences between senior enterprise architects' and principal architects' demographics:
| Senior Enterprise Architect | Principal Architect | |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 84.8% Female, 15.2% | Male, 89.3% Female, 10.7% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 6.2% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 8.8% Asian, 12.0% White, 67.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5% | Black or African American, 6.2% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 8.8% Asian, 12.0% White, 67.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5% |
| LGBT Percentage | 11% | 11% |