Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between solutions engineers and customer success managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 4-6 years to become a solutions engineer, becoming a customer success manager takes usually requires 6-8 years. Additionally, a solutions engineer has an average salary of $95,482, which is higher than the $93,820 average annual salary of a customer success manager.
The top three skills for a solutions engineer include cloud, pre sales and java. The most important skills for a customer success manager are client facing, cloud, and account management.
| Solutions Engineer | Customer Success Manager | |
| Yearly salary | $95,482 | $93,820 |
| Hourly rate | $45.90 | $45.11 |
| Growth rate | 6% | 5% |
| Number of jobs | 123,287 | 95,053 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 67% | Bachelor's Degree, 78% |
| Average age | 44 | 46 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 8 |
A solutions engineer is an individual who assists customers in identifying their computer software needs and generates customized business software solutions for them. Solutions engineers collaborate with other department engineers to create practical demonstrations of proposed solutions and showcase them to the other members of the team. They are required to test the installed software and fix programming bugs that create errors with the system. Solutions engineers also maintain customer relations by providing post-installation follow-ups.
A customer success manager works to understand repeat customers and prioritize their long-term needs. Primarily, they manage the customer relationship and give them prompt value propositions. They act as mentors to customers by educating them about the sales process and ensure efficient transaction processing. Their tasks include advocating for the company, onboarding customers to the products, follow-up on renewals, and encouraging cross-sells and upsells. Additionally, they build relationships with the customer and the support team as well as advocating customers' needs.
Solutions engineers and customer success managers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Solutions Engineer | Customer Success Manager | |
| Average salary | $95,482 | $93,820 |
| Salary range | Between $68,000 And $134,000 | Between $61,000 And $142,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | Redwood City, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | ByteDance | VMware |
| Best paying industry | Start-up | Technology |
There are a few differences between a solutions engineer and a customer success manager in terms of educational background:
| Solutions Engineer | Customer Success Manager | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 67% | Bachelor's Degree, 78% |
| Most common major | Computer Science | Business |
| Most common college | Stanford University | University of Pennsylvania |
Here are the differences between solutions engineers' and customer success managers' demographics:
| Solutions Engineer | Customer Success Manager | |
| Average age | 44 | 46 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 85.1% Female, 14.9% | Male, 54.9% Female, 45.1% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 1.4% Unknown, 6.1% Hispanic or Latino, 6.9% Asian, 10.8% White, 74.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% | Black or African American, 3.2% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 9.8% Asian, 4.1% White, 78.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 7% |