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The differences between senior instructional designers and instructional design technologists 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 instructional designer and an instructional design technologist. Additionally, a senior instructional designer has an average salary of $68,140, which is higher than the $64,845 average annual salary of an instructional design technologist.
The top three skills for a senior instructional designer include instructional design, subject matter experts and project management. The most important skills for an instructional design technologist are customer service, professional development, and curriculum design.
| Senior Instructional Designer | Instructional Design Technologist | |
| Yearly salary | $68,140 | $64,845 |
| Hourly rate | $32.76 | $31.18 |
| Growth rate | 7% | 7% |
| Number of jobs | 47,093 | 87,908 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 65% | Bachelor's Degree, 62% |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 4 |
A senior instructional designer specializes in developing instructional and educational materials for a specific group of individuals, including children and adults. Their duties involve working together with the clients in identifying project needs and requirements, collaborating with experts, conducting research and assessments, utilizing theories and other studies in developing instructional materials, and subjecting the materials into different inspections to ensure quality and accuracy. Additionally, a senior instructional designer must utilize their expertise and experience by training and supervising junior designers while implementing policies and regulations.
Instructional design technologists are professionals who focus on the creation of curriculum for instruction solutions in companies. The technologists contribute to businesses' cost savings as they determine the opportunities of transferring facilitator lead training to eLearning. They create virtual assessments and offer feedback as well as recommendations to project teams. Their tasks may include collaboration with small and medium enterprises to better understand the systems and applications before documentation or training creation. Communication, people, and time management skills are necessary for this job.
Senior instructional designers and instructional design technologists have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Senior Instructional Designer | Instructional Design Technologist | |
| Average salary | $68,140 | $64,845 |
| Salary range | Between $49,000 And $93,000 | Between $46,000 And $91,000 |
| Highest paying City | Newtown, CT | Annapolis, MD |
| Highest paying state | Connecticut | Connecticut |
| Best paying company | Algolia | ServiceNow |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Health Care |
There are a few differences between a senior instructional designer and an instructional design technologist in terms of educational background:
| Senior Instructional Designer | Instructional Design Technologist | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 65% | Bachelor's Degree, 62% |
| Most common major | Business | English |
| Most common college | Harvard University | Harvard University |
Here are the differences between senior instructional designers' and instructional design technologists' demographics:
| Senior Instructional Designer | Instructional Design Technologist | |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 45.7% Female, 54.3% | Male, 45.2% Female, 54.8% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 10.6% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 16.8% Asian, 5.5% White, 62.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% | Black or African American, 9.9% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 16.1% Asian, 5.7% White, 63.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8% |
| LGBT Percentage | 16% | 16% |