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The differences between senior performance engineers and senior software engineers 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 performance engineer and a senior software engineer. Additionally, a senior software engineer has an average salary of $114,494, which is higher than the $110,382 average annual salary of a senior performance engineer.
The top three skills for a senior performance engineer include java, jmeter and linux. The most important skills for a senior software engineer are java, python, and javascript.
| Senior Performance Engineer | Senior Software Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $110,382 | $114,494 |
| Hourly rate | $53.07 | $55.05 |
| Growth rate | 11% | 21% |
| Number of jobs | 95,530 | 338,989 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 3 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 66% | Bachelor's Degree, 69% |
| Average age | 44 | 39 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 4 |
Senior Performance Engineers are responsible for optimizing production systems to support traffic growth and new products. Their duties include creating a best practice framework for performance monitoring, scalability, and dependency handling, as well as developing testing infrastructure for post-deployment of production. They are responsible for designing alerts and dashboards, addressing performance issues, conducting root-cause analysis, defining process architecture, and facilitating site reliability in determining requirements for product scalability. Senior Performance Engineers also develop training programs to mentor operation services personnel.
Senior software engineers are experienced employees who would usually take the lead in projects related to software development. They are in charge of determining the needs of the organization, checking whether there are feasible solutions to challenges, and creating plans for the development of a software solution. They provide a sound analysis of data collected during the testing phase of the software and address any problems during the software development phase. Once the software has been developed, they then ensure that it works well and that it addresses the needs and expectations of the users.
Senior performance engineers and senior software engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Senior Performance Engineer | Senior Software Engineer | |
| Average salary | $110,382 | $114,494 |
| Salary range | Between $83,000 And $146,000 | Between $86,000 And $151,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Mateo, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | Netflix | The Citadel |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Retail |
There are a few differences between a senior performance engineer and a senior software engineer in terms of educational background:
| Senior Performance Engineer | Senior Software Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 66% | Bachelor's Degree, 69% |
| Most common major | Computer Science | Computer Science |
| Most common college | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Here are the differences between senior performance engineers' and senior software engineers' demographics:
| Senior Performance Engineer | Senior Software Engineer | |
| Average age | 44 | 39 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 76.2% Female, 23.8% | Male, 81.4% Female, 18.6% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 6.2% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 8.8% Asian, 12.0% White, 67.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5% | Black or African American, 4.6% Unknown, 4.8% Hispanic or Latino, 8.4% Asian, 31.8% White, 50.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 11% | 8% |