The average pay for a Senior Systems Engineer is $50.64 per hour.
The average pay for a Senior Systems Engineer is $101,583 per year.
Job Description for Senior Systems Engineer
The senior systems engineer tends to involve more design and build-out work than an standard systems administrator position. While both jobs contain responsibilities for day-to-day administration and upkeep of servers and storage, a senior systems engineer will also have been the one who original designed the solution; this can range anywhere from choosing a server platform to details related to processors, RAM and network cards.
Read More...- Oversee the planning, design and implementation of system engineering projects.
- May be responsible for designing a data contingency plan or data disaster recovery plan.
- Install, configure and upgrade and enhancements to software/hardware/network systems.
Popular Employer Salaries for Senior Systems Engineer
Well-known firms with a reputation for hiring numerous Senior Systems Engineers include Lockheed Martin Corp, Raytheon Co., Northrop Grumman Corporation, Rockwell Collins, Inc., and Raytheon Missile Systems. For Senior Systems Engineers, comfortable salaries can be found at The Boeing Company; in fact, average earnings are around $133K, the highest in the area, though the difference in the company's lowest and highest employee paychecks ($94K versus $173K) is great. Also paying near the top of the field are Northrop Grumman Corporation at $119K, General Dynamics C4 Systems at $113K, and Rockwell Collins, Inc., where Senior Systems Engineers annually earn $104K.
Motorola, Inc. offers the lowest pay in the field with a median salary of just $84K. There's also little variation in pay at the company, with pay ranging from $73K to $101K. BAE Systems Inc., Dell, Inc., and Lockheed Martin Corp also rank near the bottom for pay, handing out $88K, $99K, and $99K-paychecks on average.
Common Career Paths for Senior Systems Engineer
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At the upper end, Senior Systems Engineers who move into a Principal Systems Engineer role can end up with a hefty increase in pay. The average income for Principal Systems Engineers is a much higher $124K per year. The most common career progression for Senior Systems Engineers leads to becoming an Information Technology Manager, where pay is typically $78K. However, many Senior Systems Engineers also opt to become Information Technology Architects, a position that pays $110K on average.
Senior Systems Engineer Job Listings
Popular Skills for Senior Systems Engineer
Senior Systems Engineers seem to require a rather large skill set. Most notably, skills in UNIX, C++ Programming Language, Requirements Analysis, and Project Management are correlated to pay that is above average, with boosts between 4 percent and 5 percent. Skills that pay less than market rate include Microsoft Active Directory, Windows Operating System General Use, and Storage Area Networking. Most people experienced in Engineering Design also know Requirements Analysis.
Pay by Experience Level for Senior Systems Engineer
Pay by Experience for a Senior Systems Engineer has a positive trend. An entry-level Senior Systems Engineer with less than 5 years of experience can expect to earn an average total compensation of $90,000 based on 639 salaries provided by anonymous users. Average total compensation includes tips, bonus, and overtime pay. A Senior Systems Engineer with mid-career experience which includes employees with 5 to 10 years of experience can expect to earn an average total compensation of $97,000 based on 1,669 salaries. An experienced Senior Systems Engineer which includes employees with 10 to 20 years of experience can expect to earn an average total compensation of $106,000 based on 2,230 salaries. A Senior Systems Engineer with late-career experience which includes employees with greater than 20 years of experience can expect to earn an average total compensation of $119,000 based on 910 salaries.
Pay Difference by Location
For Senior Systems Engineers, working in the bustling city of San Francisco has its advantages, including an above-average pay rate. Senior Systems Engineers can also look forward to large paychecks in cities like Washington (+18 percent), Los Angeles (+12 percent), San Diego (+9 percent), and New York (+8 percent). The lowest-paying market is Orlando, which sits 8 percent below the national average. Phoenix and Atlanta are a couple other places where companies are known to pay below the median — salaries are 7 percent lower and 6 percent lower, respectively.
Senior Systems Engineer Advice
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Key Stats for Senior Systems Engineer
Gender
Female
11 % |
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Male
89 % |
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Job Satisfaction
Extremely satisfied |
Rated 5 out of 5 based on 1302 votes. |
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