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The differences between senior operations engineers and devops 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 operations engineer, becoming a devops engineer takes usually requires 2-4 years. Additionally, a senior operations engineer has an average salary of $112,583, which is higher than the $104,019 average annual salary of a devops engineer.
The top three skills for a senior operations engineer include python, AWS and cloud. The most important skills for a devops engineer are python, docker, and java.
| Senior Operations Engineer | Devops Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $112,583 | $104,019 |
| Hourly rate | $54.13 | $50.01 |
| Growth rate | 5% | 21% |
| Number of jobs | 141,825 | 257,025 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 5 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 68% | Bachelor's Degree, 75% |
| Average age | 43 | 39 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 4 |
Senior operations engineers are engineering professionals who ensure that the operations of an organization are working properly and meet both factory and management specifications. These engineers are required to create maintenance procedures that are adaptable to the existing maintenance management software for the newly installed facilities and equipment. They must provide technical support to the organization's operations, such as project design, plant optimization, project management, and startup. Senior operations engineers must also implement effective process improvements so that they can increase productivity and reduce production costs.
DevOps engineers are practitioners of DevOps, a software development strategy that aims to bridge the gap between computer software development and information technology (IT) operations. They work closely with computer software developers and other IT staff to manage code deployments and releases. Their duties include overseeing the IT infrastructure supporting software code in different environments, choosing a suitable deployment model, and directing testing protocol needed to validate releases. Other tasks they may likely perform include preparing test data, analyzing results, and troubleshooting issues and problems.
Senior operations engineers and devops engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Senior Operations Engineer | Devops Engineer | |
| Average salary | $112,583 | $104,019 |
| Salary range | Between $82,000 And $153,000 | Between $80,000 And $135,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | Apple | The Citadel |
| Best paying industry | Start-up | Start-up |
There are a few differences between a senior operations engineer and a devops engineer in terms of educational background:
| Senior Operations Engineer | Devops Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 68% | Bachelor's Degree, 75% |
| Most common major | Mechanical Engineering | Computer Science |
| Most common college | Northwestern University | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Here are the differences between senior operations engineers' and devops engineers' demographics:
| Senior Operations Engineer | Devops Engineer | |
| Average age | 43 | 39 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 90.7% Female, 9.3% | Male, 86.2% Female, 13.8% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 8.5% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 12.2% Asian, 12.4% White, 61.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% | Black or African American, 4.6% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 8.4% Asian, 29.8% White, 52.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 9% | 8% |