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The differences between service engineers and sales 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 service engineer and a sales engineer. Additionally, a sales engineer has an average salary of $93,727, which is higher than the $87,151 average annual salary of a service engineer.
The top three skills for a service engineer include customer service, infrastructure and cloud. The most important skills for a sales engineer are pre sales, customer service, and sales process.
| Service Engineer | Sales Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $87,151 | $93,727 |
| Hourly rate | $41.90 | $45.06 |
| Growth rate | 2% | 6% |
| Number of jobs | 143,806 | 132,324 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 5 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 57% | Bachelor's Degree, 74% |
| Average age | 41 | 44 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 6 |
A service engineer is responsible for assisting the customers' concerns regarding the products and services offered by the company through technical support solutions. Service engineers conduct preventive maintenance, upgrade systems to boost optimal performance, create product manuals, record the occurring issues, perform adjustments on the systems infrastructure, identify business opportunities to generate more revenues, and analyze current market trends to meet client demands. A service engineer must have excellent communication skills, including extensive knowledge of the technology industry and network systems.
A sales engineer is responsible for assisting customers with their technical equipment and advanced scientific product needs. Sales engineers must have excellent knowledge of the scientific processes and component functions of the products they're selling to deliver presentations and orient the customers. Sales engineers' duties also include troubleshooting, identifying product defects, and upgrading systems for better optimization. They are also responsible for analyzing cost estimates documents, performing adjustments as needed, process payments, arranging deliveries, and settling customers' complaints by replacing damaged items or doing refunds.
Service engineers and sales engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Service Engineer | Sales Engineer | |
| Average salary | $87,151 | $93,727 |
| Salary range | Between $62,000 And $122,000 | Between $66,000 And $132,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | Washington, DC |
| Highest paying state | California | Virginia |
| Best paying company | The Citadel | Meta |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Technology |
There are a few differences between a service engineer and a sales engineer in terms of educational background:
| Service Engineer | Sales Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 57% | Bachelor's Degree, 74% |
| Most common major | Electrical Engineering | Business |
| Most common college | Michigan Technological University | Northwestern University |
Here are the differences between service engineers' and sales engineers' demographics:
| Service Engineer | Sales Engineer | |
| Average age | 41 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 91.8% Female, 8.2% | Male, 90.1% Female, 9.9% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 3.3% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 8.9% Asian, 13.2% White, 69.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% | Black or African American, 1.7% Unknown, 6.2% Hispanic or Latino, 8.0% Asian, 7.1% White, 76.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% |
| LGBT Percentage | 5% | 7% |