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Software project leader vs senior software engineer

The differences between software project leaders and senior software 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 software project leader and a senior software engineer. Additionally, a senior software engineer has an average salary of $114,494, which is higher than the $109,474 average annual salary of a software project leader.

The top three skills for a software project leader include software development, project management and scrum. The most important skills for a senior software engineer are java, python, and javascript.

Software project leader vs senior software engineer overview

Software Project LeaderSenior Software Engineer
Yearly salary$109,474$114,494
Hourly rate$52.63$55.05
Growth rate21%21%
Number of jobs247,780338,989
Job satisfaction-3
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 71%Bachelor's Degree, 69%
Average age3939
Years of experience44

Software project leader vs senior software engineer salary

Software project leaders and senior software engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Software Project LeaderSenior Software Engineer
Average salary$109,474$114,494
Salary rangeBetween $84,000 And $142,000Between $86,000 And $151,000
Highest paying CityCupertino, CASan Francisco, CA
Highest paying stateCaliforniaCalifornia
Best paying companyBoston Consulting GroupThe Citadel
Best paying industryManufacturingRetail

Differences between software project leader and senior software engineer education

There are a few differences between a software project leader and a senior software engineer in terms of educational background:

Software Project LeaderSenior Software Engineer
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 71%Bachelor's Degree, 69%
Most common majorComputer ScienceComputer Science
Most common collegeMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyMassachusetts Institute of Technology

Software project leader vs senior software engineer demographics

Here are the differences between software project leaders' and senior software engineers' demographics:

Software Project LeaderSenior Software Engineer
Average age3939
Gender ratioMale, 75.1% Female, 24.9%Male, 81.4% Female, 18.6%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 4.6% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 8.4% Asian, 29.8% White, 52.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%Black or African American, 4.6% Unknown, 4.8% Hispanic or Latino, 8.4% Asian, 31.8% White, 50.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage8%8%

Differences between software project leader and senior software engineer duties and responsibilities

Software project leader example responsibilities.

  • Lead daily scrum meetings, organize and chair scrums with cross-functional teams to deliver the product goals and deliverables.
  • Maintain mature java-base web application design to automate highly detail engineering requests for the DoD.
  • Provide guidance and support to scrum team members, remove impediments and assist teams to maximize productivity.
  • Develop excellent debugging, analytical and programming skills.
  • Create the architecture framework for dynamically setting properties and property types for oracle using reflection.
  • Design enterprise software, including requirements analysis, software architecture, user interface, and database schema.
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Senior software engineer example responsibilities.

  • Work with Microsoft TFS to manage work items and source control.
  • Lead team in development of a custom reservoir simulation data mining and visualization tool.
  • Used and written maven scripts to manage dependencies and to build and deploy the application locally and in DEV environments.
  • Develop Unix scripts for cross cap system integration system, enhance the existing Unix scripts to achieve better performance and throughput.
  • Configure and manage Debian Linux kernel security and networking components.
  • Collaborate with project manager in tracking and managing project development process following SDLC and RBPM methodologies.
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Software project leader vs senior software engineer skills

Common software project leader skills
  • Software Development, 15%
  • Project Management, 9%
  • Scrum, 8%
  • C, 6%
  • C++, 6%
  • Java, 6%
Common senior software engineer skills
  • Java, 13%
  • Python, 6%
  • JavaScript, 5%
  • Architecture, 5%
  • Database, 4%
  • GIT, 3%

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