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System development manager vs applications developer

The differences between system development managers and applications developers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 6-8 years to become a system development manager, becoming an applications developer takes usually requires 2-4 years. Additionally, a system development manager has an average salary of $122,528, which is higher than the $89,205 average annual salary of an applications developer.

The top three skills for a system development manager include infrastructure, systems development and architecture. The most important skills for an applications developer are java, javascript, and C++.

System development manager vs applications developer overview

System Development ManagerApplications Developer
Yearly salary$122,528$89,205
Hourly rate$58.91$42.89
Growth rate16%21%
Number of jobs191,514279,877
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 74%Bachelor's Degree, 71%
Average age4739
Years of experience84

System development manager vs applications developer salary

System development managers and applications developers have different pay scales, as shown below.

System Development ManagerApplications Developer
Average salary$122,528$89,205
Salary rangeBetween $96,000 And $156,000Between $67,000 And $118,000
Highest paying CitySeattle, WASan Francisco, CA
Highest paying stateWashingtonWashington
Best paying companyAppleMeta
Best paying industryTechnologyFinance

Differences between system development manager and applications developer education

There are a few differences between a system development manager and an applications developer in terms of educational background:

System Development ManagerApplications Developer
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 74%Bachelor's Degree, 71%
Most common majorComputer ScienceComputer Science
Most common collegeCarnegie Mellon UniversityMassachusetts Institute of Technology

System development manager vs applications developer demographics

Here are the differences between system development managers' and applications developers' demographics:

System Development ManagerApplications Developer
Average age4739
Gender ratioMale, 78.2% Female, 21.8%Male, 77.0% Female, 23.0%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 6.7% Unknown, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino, 10.1% Asian, 12.6% White, 65.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%Black or African American, 4.4% Unknown, 4.8% Hispanic or Latino, 8.2% Asian, 29.9% White, 52.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage11%8%

Differences between system development manager and applications developer duties and responsibilities

System development manager example responsibilities.

  • Lead design of POS replenishment process and software design/implementation to significantly increase retail sales.
  • Collaborate with QA to maintain test environment and conduct different level of software testing.
  • Perform QA analysis on all aspects of vendor's original code and custom modifications.
  • Develop operational procedures and train corporate staff for support of ERP and HRIS systems.
  • Serve as a member of the team to port the company's in-house ERP from FoxPro to SQL.
  • Create and maintain disaster recovery database for customer installations creating revenue stream and minimizing customer impact of system failure.
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Applications developer example responsibilities.

  • Used to update issue tracker and manage code using version control system git.
  • Create UNIX shell scripts to automate the FTP process, handling of data discards, data errors, compliance errors etc.
  • Manage complete SDLC for development projects including gathering and determining business requirements.
  • Used AngularJS HTTP request to read data from web services and process JSON data to render in the UI.
  • Develop interfaces using JavaScript, HTML technologies for several web applications to fetch and graphically present require data from database.
  • Core service uses the main database and the other Microservices use their individual databases to access and store data.
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System development manager vs applications developer skills

Common system development manager skills
  • Infrastructure, 11%
  • Systems Development, 9%
  • Architecture, 7%
  • Software Development, 7%
  • Java, 7%
  • Project Management, 7%
Common applications developer skills
  • Java, 11%
  • JavaScript, 7%
  • C++, 6%
  • QA, 4%
  • Database, 4%
  • HTML, 4%

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