How To Become A Senior Lead Network Engineer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a senior lead network engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Edoardo Sarda Ph.D.

The average senior lead network engineer salary is $108,959. The most common degree is a bachelor's degree degree with an computer science major. It usually takes 1-2 years of experience to become a senior lead network engineer. Senior lead network engineers with a IT Information Library Foundations Certification (ITIL) certification earn more money. Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 5% and produce 18,200 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a senior lead network engineer?

Edoardo Sarda Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Robotics Engineering, Lake Superior State University

Flexibility has become a key asset for new graduates, due to the current COVID19 pandemic. Fortunately, engineers are still in high demand. Even fresh graduates may need to seek opportunities and accept positions working in areas that were not exactly what they had in mind while in college. Besides, the pandemic has created a reality where specific industries are struggling while others are booming. That will undoubtedly impact the demand for new engineers. Lastly, since the United States took a non-uniform approach to fight the pandemic, where every state is independently deciding how to reopen, leading to some states being stricter than others, in addition to new epicenters forming in different areas of the country at different times, new grads may not necessarily end up in the geographical location they may have originally planned.

ScoreSenior Lead Network EngineerUS Average

Salary

7.8

Avg. Salary $108,959

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.7

Growth rate 5%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.31%

Asian 9.34%

Black or African American 9.11%

Hispanic or Latino 12.79%

Unknown 5.10%

White 63.34%

Gender

female 10.27%

male 89.73%

Age - 42

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 42

Stress level

5.7

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.7

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.1

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a senior lead network engineer

Explore senior lead network engineer education requirements

Most common senior lead network engineer degrees

Bachelor's

60.6 %

Associate

18.3 %

Master's

15.0 %

Start to develop specific senior lead network engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
Firewall	5.23%
Switches	4.55%
OSPF	3.84%
VPN	3.82%
Network Infrastructure	3.73%

Complete relevant senior lead network engineer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New senior lead network engineers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a senior lead network engineer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real senior lead network engineer resumes.

Research senior lead network engineer duties and responsibilities

Excele at managing major network-wide upgrades; improve speed and predictability of multicast and order-routing data.
Configure and troubleshoot customer's LAN, BGP network, routers, etc.
Perform customer migrations; troubleshoot network usage, and map customers to ISP backbone via ATM switches and backbone routers.
Load balance DNS and DHCP services.

Get senior lead network engineer experience

Generally, it takes 1-2 years to become a senior lead network engineer. The most common roles before becoming a senior lead network engineer include senior network engineer, network engineer team lead and network technician.

Prepare your senior lead network engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your senior lead network engineer resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a senior lead network engineer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable senior lead network engineer resume templates

Build a professional senior lead network engineer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your senior lead network engineer resume.

Apply for senior lead network engineer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a senior lead network engineer job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do senior lead network engineers rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Senior lead network engineer reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jun 2020

Cons

very little

A zippia user wrote a review on Nov 2019

Pros

talking to people

Cons

outside weather, I work as a network technician and the main problem I always encounter is the cold weather.

A zippia user wrote a review on Jul 2019

Cons

HR compliance and accounting auditing , quarterly budgeting rather than Annual as previously accepted. Wallstreet insistence on more frequent projections

What is a senior lead network engineer and how to become one

What general advice would you give to a senior lead network engineer?

Senior lead network engineer career paths

Key steps to become a senior lead network engineer

Explore senior lead network engineer education requirements

Most common senior lead network engineer degrees

Start to develop specific senior lead network engineer skills

Complete relevant senior lead network engineer training and internships

Research senior lead network engineer duties and responsibilities

Get senior lead network engineer experience

Prepare your senior lead network engineer resume

Choose from 10+ customizable senior lead network engineer resume templates

Apply for senior lead network engineer jobs

How did you land your first senior lead network engineer job

Average senior lead network engineer salary

How do senior lead network engineers rate their job?

Senior lead network engineer reviews