Staff programmer vs senior programmer

The differences between staff programmers and senior programmers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 6-8 years to become both a staff programmer and a senior programmer. Additionally, a staff programmer has an average salary of $112,979, which is higher than the $105,509 average annual salary of a senior programmer.

The top three skills for a staff programmer include database, COBOL and DB2. The most important skills for a senior programmer are macro, SAS, and database.

Staff programmer vs senior programmer overview

	Staff Programmer	Senior Programmer
Yearly salary	$112,979	$105,509
Hourly rate	$54.32	$50.73
Growth rate	-7%	-7%
Number of jobs	77,790	209,882
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 68%	Bachelor's Degree, 70%
Average age	47	47
Years of experience	8	8

Staff programmer vs senior programmer salary

Staff programmers and senior programmers have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Staff Programmer	Senior Programmer
Average salary	$112,979	$105,509
Salary range	Between $85,000 And $149,000	Between $78,000 And $141,000
Highest paying City	Seattle, WA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	Washington	California
Best paying company	The Walt Disney Company	Cornerstone Research
Best paying industry	Telecommunication	Pharmaceutical

Differences between staff programmer and senior programmer education

There are a few differences between a staff programmer and a senior programmer in terms of educational background:

	Staff Programmer	Senior Programmer
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 68%	Bachelor's Degree, 70%
Most common major	Computer Science	Computer Science
Most common college	Stanford University	Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Staff programmer vs senior programmer demographics

Here are the differences between staff programmers' and senior programmers' demographics:

	Staff Programmer	Senior Programmer
Average age	47	47
Gender ratio	Male, 76.3% Female, 23.7%	Male, 81.0% Female, 19.0%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 5.0% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 8.8% Asian, 16.4% White, 64.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%	Black or African American, 4.8% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 8.4% Asian, 19.2% White, 62.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage	11%	11%

Differences between staff programmer and senior programmer duties and responsibilities

Staff programmer example responsibilities.

Achieve improved efficiency and cost reduction goals through efforts and expertise provide in multiple LPAR eliminations and data center consolidations.
Provide technical support to team members on CICS, DB2, and design relate issues.
Develop UNIX shell script which calls the application.
Develop subsequent functionality using HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and AJAX.
Fast-Pace environment of office and production users of PC software and hardware.
Develop and support batch SAS reports, in support of ECAT routing system.

Senior programmer example responsibilities.

Acquire depth knowledge in ADAM, the tool which manages all the assets.
Install and manage FTP server.
Develop several small tools to automate certain processes (python).
Lead a team investigating carrier-grade Linux enhancements leading to a $350,000 sale.
Develop Perl scripts to automate manual work, dramatically reducing the overall time span.
Reduce previous single 26 file game into one easy to manage SWF file by making static content dynamic XML driven.

Staff programmer vs senior programmer skills

Common staff programmer skills

Database, 9%
COBOL, 6%
DB2, 4%
PL/SQL, 4%
Mainframe, 4%
HTML, 3%

Common senior programmer skills

Macro, 12%
SAS, 10%
Database, 8%
C++, 7%
Adam, 5%
Java, 4%