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The differences between senior pre-sales engineers and application engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 4-6 years to become both a senior pre-sales engineer and an application engineer. Additionally, a senior pre-sales engineer has an average salary of $115,532, which is higher than the $92,921 average annual salary of an application engineer.
The top three skills for a senior pre-sales engineer include pre sales, technical liaison and sales process. The most important skills for an application engineer are technical support, java, and C++.
| Senior Pre-Sales Engineer | Application Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $115,532 | $92,921 |
| Hourly rate | $55.54 | $44.67 |
| Growth rate | 6% | 6% |
| Number of jobs | 23,387 | 111,338 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 75% | Bachelor's Degree, 72% |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 6 |
A senior pre-sales engineer is the technical pillar of sales in an organization. They employ their business acumen and leadership in designing, proposing, demonstrating, and marketing business values to customers. Their responsibilities include delivering technical demos and presentations with a special focus on the consumer's business requirements, converting prospects to customers and customers to product evangelists, building a win-win relationship with customers and internal departments, creating technical architecture designs, assisting sales qualification, and presenting workshops.
An application engineer is responsible for creating and re-designing system applications based on clients' specifications and sales demands. Application engineers run diagnostic tests on software programs, identify areas of improvement, install necessary updates, upgrade optimization, revise system codes, and provide technical support for customers' needs. They also generate ideas and locate other business opportunities by analyzing current trends in the technology market that would help build revenues and increase profitability for the company. An application engineer must have a strong command of programming languages, software application processes, and general technology disciplines.
Senior pre-sales engineers and application engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Senior Pre-Sales Engineer | Application Engineer | |
| Average salary | $115,532 | $92,921 |
| Salary range | Between $87,000 And $152,000 | Between $69,000 And $125,000 |
| Highest paying City | - | Redwood City, CA |
| Highest paying state | - | California |
| Best paying company | - | Morgan Lewis |
| Best paying industry | - | Technology |
There are a few differences between a senior pre-sales engineer and an application engineer in terms of educational background:
| Senior Pre-Sales Engineer | Application Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 75% | Bachelor's Degree, 72% |
| Most common major | Computer Science | Mechanical Engineering |
| Most common college | Stanford University | Georgia Institute of Technology |
Here are the differences between senior pre-sales engineers' and application engineers' demographics:
| Senior Pre-Sales Engineer | Application Engineer | |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 93.6% Female, 6.4% | Male, 87.4% Female, 12.6% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 1.6% Unknown, 6.2% Hispanic or Latino, 7.9% Asian, 5.8% White, 78.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% | Black or African American, 1.4% Unknown, 6.1% Hispanic or Latino, 6.7% Asian, 11.5% White, 74.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 7% |