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The differences between senior network architects and senior network engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a senior network architect and a senior network engineer. Additionally, a senior network architect has an average salary of $114,322, which is higher than the $111,707 average annual salary of a senior network engineer.
The top three skills for a senior network architect include cloud, azure and OSPF. The most important skills for a senior network engineer are switches, BGP, and OSPF.
| Senior Network Architect | Senior Network Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $114,322 | $111,707 |
| Hourly rate | $54.96 | $53.71 |
| Growth rate | 5% | 5% |
| Number of jobs | 95,327 | 35,428 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 63% | Bachelor's Degree, 65% |
| Average age | 43 | 43 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
A senior network architect specializes in designing and establishing networks and systems in a company. It is their responsibility to determine the network and communication needs of a company, conduct research and analysis, gather and analyze data from various operations, develop strategies to optimize operations, and oversee procedures from planning to execution, ensuring accuracy and smooth workflow. Moreover, as a senior network architect, they must lead and serve as a role model to junior architects, all while implementing the company's policies and regulations.
A senior network engineer is responsible for managing the organization's network infrastructure, handling advanced network issues, upgrading the system's design for optimization, configuring network features, and ensuring the network's highest security measures to avoid unauthorized access and suspicious activities. Senior network engineers work with network architects to implement network designs, run diagnostic tests, and create network solution reports for review and recovery reference. A senior network engineer must have excellent communication and organization skills and broad knowledge of the technology industry, programming languages, and system codes.
Senior network architects and senior network engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Senior Network Architect | Senior Network Engineer | |
| Average salary | $114,322 | $111,707 |
| Salary range | Between $82,000 And $158,000 | Between $85,000 And $145,000 |
| Highest paying City | Redwood City, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | Washington |
| Best paying company | NVIDIA | The Citadel |
| Best paying industry | Finance | Finance |
There are a few differences between a senior network architect and a senior network engineer in terms of educational background:
| Senior Network Architect | Senior Network Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 63% | Bachelor's Degree, 65% |
| Most common major | Electrical Engineering | Electrical Engineering |
| Most common college | California State University - Long Beach | - |
Here are the differences between senior network architects' and senior network engineers' demographics:
| Senior Network Architect | Senior Network Engineer | |
| Average age | 43 | 43 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 96.5% Female, 3.5% | Male, 93.2% Female, 6.8% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 8.7% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 12.4% Asian, 10.9% White, 62.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% | Black or African American, 8.2% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 11.9% Asian, 13.5% White, 61.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% |
| LGBT Percentage | 9% | 9% |