Senior security architect vs senior security consultant

The differences between senior security architects and senior security consultants 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 security architect and a senior security consultant. Additionally, a senior security architect has an average salary of $129,456, which is higher than the $120,769 average annual salary of a senior security consultant.

The top three skills for a senior security architect include cloud security, cloud and risk assessments. The most important skills for a senior security consultant are cloud security, infrastructure, and governance.

Senior security architect vs senior security consultant overview

	Senior Security Architect	Senior Security Consultant
Yearly salary	$129,456	$120,769
Hourly rate	$62.24	$58.06
Growth rate	32%	32%
Number of jobs	123,555	66,226
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 66%	Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Average age	42	42
Years of experience	6	6

What does a senior security architect do?

Senior security architects deal with developing solutions to accomplish goals and providing ideas about structure, growth, and solutions. Their job revolves around a quick moving environment, constant communication, and working with partners to identify business opportunities. Having this position requires leadership and mentoring skills to help junior team members succeed in this field. They should have technical skills to design and develop solutions to improve an already existing technology. Also, they will be responsible for developing, planning, and executing security systems and strategies.

What does a senior security consultant do?

A senior security consultant is an information technology (IT) expert specializing in establishing security protocols and systems to protect a company's data and network. Their responsibilities revolve around performing internal research and analysis to identify the strengths and weaknesses of current IT security systems, recommending solutions to problem areas, and suggesting new tools and techniques to improve data security. Furthermore, as a senior security consultant, it is essential to monitor the company's systems and networks and promptly respond to any breaches, conducting corrective and preventive measures to prevent it from ever happening again.

Senior security architect vs senior security consultant salary

Senior security architects and senior security consultants have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Senior Security Architect	Senior Security Consultant
Average salary	$129,456	$120,769
Salary range	Between $96,000 And $173,000	Between $91,000 And $159,000
Highest paying City	Olympia, WA	Sacramento, CA
Highest paying state	Washington	Nevada
Best paying company	Apple	Amazon
Best paying industry	Professional	Technology

Differences between senior security architect and senior security consultant education

There are a few differences between a senior security architect and a senior security consultant in terms of educational background:

	Senior Security Architect	Senior Security Consultant
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 66%	Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Most common major	Computer Science	Business
Most common college	Stanford University	Stanford University

Senior security architect vs senior security consultant demographics

Here are the differences between senior security architects' and senior security consultants' demographics:

	Senior Security Architect	Senior Security Consultant
Average age	42	42
Gender ratio	Male, 94.3% Female, 5.7%	Male, 86.1% Female, 13.9%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 9.2% Unknown, 6.1% Hispanic or Latino, 9.0% Asian, 9.6% White, 65.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%	Black or African American, 9.2% Unknown, 6.1% Hispanic or Latino, 9.0% Asian, 9.6% White, 65.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%
LGBT Percentage	9%	9%

Differences between senior security architect and senior security consultant duties and responsibilities

Senior security architect example responsibilities.

Achieve full compliance for industry specification standards (UL, NEMA, NIST).
Manage logistics of moving necessary equipment for test across country to newly designed/built NSA certify test facility.
Provide governance and direction for proper use of data.
Implement logging, Nessus, write policies and develop encryption from framework for PCI/SOX compliance.
Ensure encryption solutions are in compliance with company policies, regulatory directives, and best practices.
Develop enterprise security policy, standards, controls and guidelines base on PCI, SOX, HIPPA, and NIST standards.

Senior security consultant example responsibilities.

Manage GLBA security awareness and training program and annual information security awareness activities.
Work alongside the QA department to ensure all documents are concise and well written in order to meet ISO's standards.
Monitor company s internal logs and traffic via Splunk to proactively investigate suspicious traffic and determine if the anomalies are malicious.
Perform email and file encryption transition for global financial/insurance company.
Assist organizations with creation of their management systems and registration to international (ISO) security and service management standards.
Provide technical leadership, task management, and engineering support to customers in the development of cryptography and key management solutions.

Senior security architect vs senior security consultant skills

Common senior security architect skills

Cloud Security, 8%
Cloud, 8%
Risk Assessments, 5%
Encryption, 5%
Firewall, 5%
Windows, 4%

Common senior security consultant skills

Cloud Security, 9%
Infrastructure, 7%
Governance, 5%
Java, 5%
Risk Management, 5%
Access Management, 4%

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Senior Security Architect vs Senior Security Consultant

Updated January 8, 2025

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