Windows system administrator vs lead administrator

The differences between windows system administrators and lead administrators can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a windows system administrator and a lead administrator. Additionally, a lead administrator has an average salary of $94,444, which is higher than the $79,845 average annual salary of a windows system administrator.

The top three skills for a windows system administrator include windows server, infrastructure and powershell. The most important skills for a lead administrator are payroll, office equipment, and expense reports.

Windows system administrator vs lead administrator overview

	Windows System Administrator	Lead Administrator
Yearly salary	$79,845	$94,444
Hourly rate	$38.39	$45.41
Growth rate	5%	5%
Number of jobs	94,648	57,229
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 62%	Bachelor's Degree, 53%
Average age	43	43
Years of experience	2	2

What does a windows system administrator do?

A Windows System Administrator maintains the systems and servers of a Windows operating system. They evaluate and modify the system's performance.

What does a lead administrator do?

Lead administrators are information technology (IT) professionals who are responsible for managing and troubleshooting departmental computer operations of an organization. These IT professionals must manage and approve access to their online score data as well as create new users directly in the portal to allow access to the score data. They manage the office supplies of the organization while processing salary management and executive payroll every month. Lead administrators must also coordinate with technicians for hardware, printer, and cabling repairs.

Windows system administrator vs lead administrator salary

Windows system administrators and lead administrators have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Windows System Administrator	Lead Administrator
Average salary	$79,845	$94,444
Salary range	Between $60,000 And $104,000	Between $63,000 And $141,000
Highest paying City	Sunnyvale, CA	Richmond, CA
Highest paying state	California	Oregon
Best paying company	Meta	Koch Industries
Best paying industry	Finance	Finance

Differences between windows system administrator and lead administrator education

There are a few differences between a windows system administrator and a lead administrator in terms of educational background:

	Windows System Administrator	Lead Administrator
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 62%	Bachelor's Degree, 53%
Most common major	Computer Science	Business
Most common college	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Stanford University

Windows system administrator vs lead administrator demographics

Here are the differences between windows system administrators' and lead administrators' demographics:

	Windows System Administrator	Lead Administrator
Average age	43	43
Gender ratio	Male, 88.3% Female, 11.7%	Male, 37.2% Female, 62.8%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 7.9% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 11.6% Asian, 13.7% White, 61.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%	Black or African American, 9.2% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 12.9% Asian, 9.5% White, 63.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%
LGBT Percentage	9%	9%

Differences between windows system administrator and lead administrator duties and responsibilities

Windows system administrator example responsibilities.

Manage and configure VPN connections for the users.
Deploy and manage Panasonic PBX and VOIP phone systems and network connectivity.
Manage exchange stores, mailbox provisioning, active sync and monitoring the mailboxes.
Manage data usage, space, security and archival over servers, workstations and NAS machines.
Manage issues with server hardware, networking, web services, database, DNS, clustering, and e-mail.
Manage all OU's under domain at multiple sites across the country through a constant VPN tunnel per client rules.

Lead administrator example responsibilities.

Manage and coordinate office operations and procedures to include payroll preparation, information management/filing systems, and supply requisitions.
Support and troubleshoot all claims questions and provide assistance with more advance issues.
Provide initiatives and suggestions for performance tuning of applications, script auto deployment plans, troubleshoot complex production issues.
Create and implement migration plans to new SharePoint environments.
Provide application training for company's custom provisioning application.
Implement SSO configuration and user provisioning on IDM environments.

Windows system administrator vs lead administrator skills

Common windows system administrator skills

Windows Server, 9%
Infrastructure, 7%
PowerShell, 7%
Troubleshoot, 6%
Linux, 5%
SCCM, 4%

Common lead administrator skills

Payroll, 10%
Office Equipment, 8%
Expense Reports, 6%
Windows, 6%
Data Entry, 5%
PowerPoint, 5%

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Windows System Administrator
Windows System Administrator vs Lead Administrator

Updated January 8, 2025

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