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The differences between senior performance engineers and software test 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 software test engineer. Additionally, a senior performance engineer has an average salary of $110,382, which is higher than the $85,338 average annual salary of a software test engineer.
The top three skills for a senior performance engineer include java, jmeter and linux. The most important skills for a software test engineer are python, java, and test automation.
| Senior Performance Engineer | Software Test Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $110,382 | $85,338 |
| Hourly rate | $53.07 | $41.03 |
| Growth rate | 11% | - |
| Number of jobs | 95,530 | 243,382 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 66% | Bachelor's Degree, 70% |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| 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.
Software engineers are responsible for coordinating the process of analyzing computer software programs. This process requires creating and implementing testing methods, documenting the test results, and providing recommendations for software improvements. They are also responsible for other tasks, including writing software testing procedures and creating testing scripts using different programming languages. A software engineer also collaborates with software developers and other staff members from the start and completion of a particular project. Having a bachelor's degree in software engineering, computer science, or information technology is needed to become a software engineer.
Senior performance engineers and software test engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Senior Performance Engineer | Software Test Engineer | |
| Average salary | $110,382 | $85,338 |
| Salary range | Between $83,000 And $146,000 | Between $63,000 And $115,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Mateo, CA | San Mateo, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | Netflix | Apple |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Telecommunication |
There are a few differences between a senior performance engineer and a software test engineer in terms of educational background:
| Senior Performance Engineer | Software Test Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 66% | Bachelor's Degree, 70% |
| Most common major | Computer Science | Computer Science |
| Most common college | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | California State University - Long Beach |
Here are the differences between senior performance engineers' and software test engineers' demographics:
| Senior Performance Engineer | Software Test Engineer | |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 76.2% Female, 23.8% | Male, 68.6% Female, 31.4% |
| 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, 6.2% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 8.8% Asian, 12.0% White, 67.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5% |
| LGBT Percentage | 11% | 11% |