Network admins vs network engineers - differences?

I'm a bit unclear about the differences between network administrators and network engineers. Can anyone explain it in detail?

As I see it, both job titles are responsible for building the network. The hardware. Routers, switches, racks, Ethernet cabling and fiber optic lines, power supplies and electrical needs, and installing the servers. The software and programs on the server? That's the system administrators problem, the network guy just makes sure everything is correctly plugged in, configured, and connects.

I'm sure I don't have all the information, but I'd like to understand these jobs better.

Find more posts tagged with

Free for TechExams community: Cybersecurity salary guide

Compare cert salaries and plan your next career move

Button

Comments

Iristheangel

Job titles can be pretty fluid in this industry - so I wouldn't vest too much in them. I've seen "Network Admins" do more as part of their job than "Network Engineers" at other companies. It really just depends on the company.

That being said, I would say that a "network admin" would be what I would more see as a operational role of keeping the lights on, responding to tickets, break/fix network work, etc.
I would say "network engineers" are more of the guys that plan the deployment, implement, document, doing more project and design work. Another difference I would say is that the engineer knows how to package things to present them to management and pitches solutions/designs they implement, the admins support that design/solution that the engineer puts into place.

My .2

joelsfood

In short, engineers build, admins maintain. If you want the third level (depending on size of company), architects design.

But as Iris said, the titles are fluid and vary company to company.

TWX

Just to muddy the works I have the title "Network Specialist" and I build and maintain networks, and even do some design from time to time.

bermovick

To muddy them even more, my wife's title is Network Admin and she works exclusively on Exchange servers.

CSCOnoob

Titles does not mean much in IT industry. People just make it a big deal. Some would argue that the title engineers should only be applied to professional engineers. It is all about the role.

hurricane1091

We only have network engineers (3) and a N.E. manager, no admins. But we design and implement things as well as respond to tickets. Majority of the work though is projects, the network is pretty stable.

But, we have Systems Engineers and Systems Admins and that related directly to what was mentioned before. The System Engineer designs and implements, and the admin keeps an eye out on it. I think this is generally the case but it changes everywhere you go.

TechGromit

Iristheangel wrote: »

That being said, I would say that a "network admin" would be what I would more see as a operational role of keeping the lights on, responding to tickets, break/fix network work, etc.

I would say "network engineers" are more of the guys that plan the deployment, implement, document, doing more project and design work.

I concur. Engineers would probably manage the corporate routers upstream, where Network Admins would be more at the site level. Network admin would a good description of my duties were I work. Although I upgraded / configured switches and routers, I didn't design the network (but added to it at the site level).

TWX wrote: »

Just to muddy the works I have the title "Network Specialist" and I build and maintain networks, and even do some design from time to time.

Really depends on the size of the company, at a smaller company the network admin/specialist would have more roles, at a larger company, they would have smaller, more defined roles.

E Double U

You say tomato, I say tomato.

IaHawk

We have a Network Engineer, Network Technician and Network Admin and the Network Admin is actually a Systems Admin. Not confusing at all.

ImYourOnlyDJ

E Double U wrote: »

You say tomato, I say tomato.

Why did you just say tomato twice? :P

Mutata

Can confirm. Engineer title means nothing

Russell77

What about infrastructure Engineer? Any thoughts how that title fits in?

kohr-ah

Infrastructure engineers where I have worked usually were the guys who physically setup the equipment and got it integrated to the network.

They could be the ones that got the UCS chassis communicating and then the admins would take it over and load the vms, etc on it.

This may not be the case at all places just a lot of where I worked.

fullcrowmoon

For the 15 years I was a UNIX/Linux Systems Administrator I had only two titles. For about 3 years my title was Distributed Systems Analyst, and then I switched companies and became a Senior Network Engineer. My job never changed, though - I was always doing 4th level support of production servers running UNIX/Linux with a bit of Windows thrown in at times. I never once touched a router or switch, so calling me a Senior Network Engineer was inaccurate.

As I've moved into other jobs during my career, people consistently think I must be a network guru because of that title, and I always end up having to explain what I really did.

tldr: Your job title indicates nothing about your actual job 99% of the time.

TWX

TechGromit wrote: »

Really depends on the size of the company, at a smaller company the network admin/specialist would have more roles, at a larger company, they would have smaller, more defined roles.

I have about 2200 managed switches or switch stacks across about a hundred sites in about 700 closets with about 75,000 users. For a city-sized network it's difficult to get a lot larger than that.

I would love to have a smaller, more defined role.

TechGromit

TWX wrote: »

I have about 2200 managed switches or switch stacks across about a hundred sites in about 700 closets with about 75,000 users. For a city-sized network it's difficult to get a lot larger than that.

I would love to have a smaller, more defined role.

You must either be superman or have some kind of help. I have around 100 managed switches, one of the switches is in a High Radiation zone, so hows that for bragging rights.

TWX

TechGromit wrote: »

You must either be superman or have some kind of help. I have around 100 managed switches, one of the switches is in a High Radiation zone, so hows that for bragging rights.

There are four of us, two doing switches predominately and two that handle other aspects of the network. The network is very simply designed so that this few people can handle it, but at times it is rather stressful. Mostly when things go awry and inevitably several things go wrong at once.

Glad I don't have a radiation zone, but I have a few closets in gender-segregated areas so while my life might not be at stake maintaining them, my career could be if procedures aren't followed to a T...

Dieg0M

In IT your title means really little. I have seen Network Architect/Network Engineer/Network Admin/Network Specialist do the same tasks. What has more significance is the Junior or Senior word that you get in front of your title.

Remedymp

Some companies have made titles and salary work in parallel.