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The differences between senior reliability engineers and project lead 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 reliability engineer and a project lead engineer. Additionally, a senior reliability engineer has an average salary of $121,562, which is higher than the $106,946 average annual salary of a project lead engineer.
The top three skills for a senior reliability engineer include jenkins, azure and ruby. The most important skills for a project lead engineer are project management, renewable energy, and project execution.
| Senior Reliability Engineer | Project Lead Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $121,562 | $106,946 |
| Hourly rate | $58.44 | $51.42 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 38,101 | 98,018 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 71% | Bachelor's Degree, 73% |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 4 |
Senior reliability engineers are responsible for identifying and managing asset reliability risks that can cause a stoppage and delay of plant or business operations. They are responsible for monitoring production losses and high-maintenance cost assets and finding ways to reduce them. Other duties typically include working closely with project engineers to ensure the reliability of new and existing installations, participating in the final inspection of new installations, and providing input to plans aimed at mitigating and managing risks.
Project lead engineers are engineering professionals who are responsible for leading other professionals in completing a particular project. These engineers must develop a project management framework to be implemented throughout the organization based on the inputs from internal stakeholders and team members. They are required to train junior team members so that they can provide proper technical support functions. Project lead engineers must also prepare and review cost estimates for a variety of projects during bidding, construction, and post-construction phases.
Senior reliability engineers and project lead engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Senior Reliability Engineer | Project Lead Engineer | |
| Average salary | $121,562 | $106,946 |
| Salary range | Between $90,000 And $163,000 | Between $78,000 And $146,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | Cupertino, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | Apple | |
| Best paying industry | Internet | Automotive |
There are a few differences between a senior reliability engineer and a project lead engineer in terms of educational background:
| Senior Reliability Engineer | Project Lead Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 71% | Bachelor's Degree, 73% |
| Most common major | Electrical Engineering | Mechanical Engineering |
| Most common college | Northwestern University | Northwestern University |
Here are the differences between senior reliability engineers' and project lead engineers' demographics:
| Senior Reliability Engineer | Project Lead Engineer | |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 87.7% Female, 12.3% | Male, 86.8% Female, 13.2% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 4.3% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 10.5% Asian, 15.5% White, 65.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | Black or African American, 4.3% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 10.4% Asian, 15.2% White, 66.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 4% | 4% |