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Senior field engineer vs junior engineer

The differences between senior field engineers and junior engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 1-2 years to become a senior field engineer, becoming a junior engineer takes usually requires 4-6 years. Additionally, a senior field engineer has an average salary of $97,104, which is higher than the $70,653 average annual salary of a junior engineer.

The top three skills for a senior field engineer include RF, technical support and excellent interpersonal. The most important skills for a junior engineer are control systems, java, and C++.

Senior field engineer vs junior engineer overview

Senior Field EngineerJunior Engineer
Yearly salary$97,104$70,653
Hourly rate$46.68$33.97
Growth rate3%2%
Number of jobs86,767107,703
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 53%Bachelor's Degree, 70%
Average age4541
Years of experience26

What does a senior field engineer do?

A senior field engineer is in charge of overseeing and providing technical support on-site, helping operations run smoothly and efficiently. Among their responsibilities include performing installations and upgrades, performing research and analysis, managing staff, producing progress reports, and conducting inspections, ensuring compliance with state laws and regulations. They must also perform regular maintenance checks on equipment, performing corrective repairs and adjustments when necessary. Furthermore, as a senior field engineer, it is essential to lead and serve as a mentor to junior engineers while implementing the site's safety policies and regulations.

What does a junior engineer do?

A Junior Engineer helps design, build, or maintain engines, machines, or public works. They work under the supervision of an engineer.

Senior field engineer vs junior engineer salary

Senior field engineers and junior engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Senior Field EngineerJunior Engineer
Average salary$97,104$70,653
Salary rangeBetween $67,000 And $139,000Between $54,000 And $91,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CASan Francisco, CA
Highest paying stateCaliforniaWashington
Best paying companyAppleApple
Best paying industryEnergyTechnology

Differences between senior field engineer and junior engineer education

There are a few differences between a senior field engineer and a junior engineer in terms of educational background:

Senior Field EngineerJunior Engineer
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 53%Bachelor's Degree, 70%
Most common majorElectrical EngineeringCivil Engineering
Most common collegeMichigan Technological UniversityMassachusetts Institute of Technology

Senior field engineer vs junior engineer demographics

Here are the differences between senior field engineers' and junior engineers' demographics:

Senior Field EngineerJunior Engineer
Average age4541
Gender ratioMale, 95.1% Female, 4.9%Male, 83.4% Female, 16.6%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 4.9% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 11.5% Asian, 14.3% White, 64.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%Black or African American, 3.1% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 7.8% Asian, 16.7% White, 67.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%
LGBT Percentage6%5%

Differences between senior field engineer and junior engineer duties and responsibilities

Senior field engineer example responsibilities.

  • Manage a team of 10 engineers to install and repair commercial HVAC and refrigeration units.
  • Promote from original position as a staff engineer managing a variety of geotechnical engineering activities to a field engineer inspector position.
  • Upgrade firmware on all components in the SAN.
  • Provide UNIX host setup and provide administration for the duration of the engagement.
  • Work with vendor partners to troubleshoot hardware and software issues with core nodes.
  • Perform site acceptance testing and provide system maintenance support for FAA and DOD sites.
  • Show more

Junior engineer example responsibilities.

  • Manage the collection of static HTML sites for marketing.
  • Manage Terraform and refactore from monolithic to application specific components.
  • Work on HTML, CSS & Java.
  • Used CSS, HTML/XHTML, and JavaScript to customize the front-end of a large web application.
  • Design the user interactive (UI) web pages using web technologies like HTML5, XHTML, and CSS3.
  • Work on the windows default firewall application.
  • Show more

Senior field engineer vs junior engineer skills

Common senior field engineer skills
  • RF, 7%
  • Technical Support, 6%
  • Excellent Interpersonal, 6%
  • Technical Problems, 5%
  • Test Equipment, 5%
  • Linux, 4%
Common junior engineer skills
  • Control Systems, 11%
  • Java, 8%
  • C++, 5%
  • C #, 5%
  • Windows, 5%
  • Troubleshoot, 5%

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