Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between software engineers lead and software engineers-consultant can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a software engineer lead and a software engineer-consultant. Additionally, a software engineer lead has an average salary of $125,565, which is higher than the $113,987 average annual salary of a software engineer-consultant.
The top three skills for a software engineer lead include java, python and software development. The most important skills for a software engineer-consultant are java, python, and architecture.
| Software Engineer Lead | Software Engineer-Consultant | |
| Yearly salary | $125,565 | $113,987 |
| Hourly rate | $60.37 | $54.80 |
| Growth rate | 21% | 21% |
| Number of jobs | 342,462 | 317,033 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 69% | Bachelor's Degree, 71% |
| Average age | 39 | 39 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 4 |
A Software Engineer Lead is focused on developing and testing software programs. They manage a team of software engineers that design enterprise software products and operating systems.
A software engineer consultant develops and recommends strategies to optimize a company's software engineering operations. Their responsibilities revolve around conducting extensive research and analysis to find new opportunities, performing software evaluations and risk assessments, identifying the strengths and weaknesses of existing processes, and developing solutions against problem areas. Through the findings of their research, a software engineer consultant draws conclusions and recommendations that will help the company to reach their short and long-term goals and resolve issues or concerns.
Software engineers lead and software engineers-consultant have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Software Engineer Lead | Software Engineer-Consultant | |
| Average salary | $125,565 | $113,987 |
| Salary range | Between $93,000 And $168,000 | Between $85,000 And $152,000 |
| Highest paying City | Seattle, WA | Foster City, CA |
| Highest paying state | Washington | California |
| Best paying company | Meta | Advent Software |
| Best paying industry | Automotive | Insurance |
There are a few differences between a software engineer lead and a software engineer-consultant in terms of educational background:
| Software Engineer Lead | Software Engineer-Consultant | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 69% | Bachelor's Degree, 71% |
| Most common major | Computer Science | Computer Science |
| Most common college | Harvard University | Harvard University |
Here are the differences between software engineers lead' and software engineers-consultant' demographics:
| Software Engineer Lead | Software Engineer-Consultant | |
| Average age | 39 | 39 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 86.7% Female, 13.3% | Male, 86.1% Female, 13.9% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 4.5% Unknown, 4.8% Hispanic or Latino, 8.3% Asian, 29.9% White, 52.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | Black or African American, 4.7% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 8.4% Asian, 29.7% White, 52.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 8% | 8% |