Senior operator vs mainframe operator

The differences between senior operators and mainframe operators can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 2-4 years to become a senior operator, becoming a mainframe operator takes usually requires 1-2 years. Additionally, a senior operator has an average salary of $85,677, which is higher than the $46,076 average annual salary of a mainframe operator.

The top three skills for a senior operator include safety procedures, math and powerpoint. The most important skills for a mainframe operator are windows, troubleshoot, and JCL.

Senior operator vs mainframe operator overview

	Senior Operator	Mainframe Operator
Yearly salary	$85,677	$46,076
Hourly rate	$41.19	$22.15
Growth rate	7%	-
Number of jobs	45,548	26,604
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 38%	Bachelor's Degree, 45%
Average age	43	43
Years of experience	4	2

Senior operator vs mainframe operator salary

Senior operators and mainframe operators have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Senior Operator	Mainframe Operator
Average salary	$85,677	$46,076
Salary range	Between $54,000 And $135,000	Between $36,000 And $58,000
Highest paying City	Boston, MA	-
Highest paying state	Massachusetts	-
Best paying company	Google	-
Best paying industry	-	-

Differences between senior operator and mainframe operator education

There are a few differences between a senior operator and a mainframe operator in terms of educational background:

	Senior Operator	Mainframe Operator
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 38%	Bachelor's Degree, 45%
Most common major	Business	Computer Science
Most common college	Stanford University	Stanford University

Senior operator vs mainframe operator demographics

Here are the differences between senior operators' and mainframe operators' demographics:

	Senior Operator	Mainframe Operator
Average age	43	43
Gender ratio	Male, 72.8% Female, 27.2%	Male, 84.2% Female, 15.8%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 17.0% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 19.1% Asian, 2.6% White, 56.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8%	Black or African American, 8.6% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 9.9% Asian, 12.3% White, 63.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6%
LGBT Percentage	4%	10%

Differences between senior operator and mainframe operator duties and responsibilities

Senior operator example responsibilities.

Measure and inspect parts with calipers, scale, MRP, leads, micrometers and taper.
Manage the master calendar and schedule resources such as communication equipment, weapons, transportation and ammunition forecast and delivery.
Operate QC testing equipment such as calipers and micrometers.
Experience with MVS and JES2 command sets, the weekly shutdown and initial power load of production systems.
Assist in migration to the LAN environment, perform quality control and JCL setup and interface with user and vendor communities.
Train with TSO, JES2, and UCC7.

Mainframe operator example responsibilities.

Manage local and remote output processing via JES2 node connections.
Lead the team for implementation of major enhancements with JCL, DB2, CICS and VSAM and documentation of the upgrades.
Monitor and correct production batch jobs with JCL, MVS, and JES3.
Monitor the MVS spooling system (JES2), security access (ACF2) and TCP/IP access and processing.
Monitor and address mainframe, VM systems issues.
Execute daily start-up of all CICS regions and ATM networks.

Senior operator vs mainframe operator skills

Common senior operator skills

Safety Procedures, 17%
Math, 8%
PowerPoint, 7%
Windows, 5%
Logistics, 5%
CDL, 5%

Common mainframe operator skills

Windows, 8%
Troubleshoot, 8%
JCL, 7%
IPL, 6%
Mainframe Operations, 6%
SLA, 5%

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Senior Operator vs Mainframe Operator

Updated January 8, 2025

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