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California / General Services / Senior Architect

Job-title file

Senior Architect

Carry out the duties of this position in support of the agency's public mission.

49 employees hold this title in General Services. Median total compensation for the role is $159,494, above the department median of $68,912.

Employees
49
Total payroll
$7.2M
Role median
$159,494
Agency median
$68,912
Comparison
Above

What the records show

Role pay distribution

Pay distribution for this role

$14,374$176,855+

Hover a bar for its range; click to filter the list below.

How total compensation varies among the 49 people in this role. Even for one job title, pay differs with seniority, step, overtime, and tenure. Each bar is a pay range; the far-right bar collects the highest earners.

Compared with the local labor market

Senior Architect pay vs. California

Across all employers in California, the median wage for Architects, Except Landscape and Naval — about 13,270 people — is $108,540. General Services pays a median base salary of $158,618 for this role, 46% above that figureabout the 80th percentile of local pay for the occupation.

Where General Services sits in the local pay range

10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
$75,640
$85,990
$108,540
$152,430
$171,160
General Services median · $158,618

The bar is the range of annual wages for Architects, Except Landscape and Naval across every employer in California, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows General Services’s median base salary for this role. Both figures are base pay only.

And across the country

Nationwide, the median wage for Architects, Except Landscape and Naval — about 106,770 people — is $99,280. General Services’s median base salary is 60% above that national figure, about the 89th percentile of pay for the occupation nationally.

10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
$62,300
$77,960
$99,280
$126,550
$161,420
General Services median · $158,618

Local and national wages differ for reasons beyond how well a job pays — cost of living, the mix of employers, and local demand for the occupation all move the California range relative to the national one.

Computed over the 48 of 49 people in this role paid at least $25,000in base salary. The rest are part-year or part-time records, whose actual pay isn’t comparable to a full-time annual wage.

Median total compensation for this role at General Services is $159,494, which includes overtime and employer-paid benefits. The benchmark above excludes both, so total compensation is deliberately not compared against it.

Benchmark: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025). BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) covers all employers in the area — private, non-profit, and government alike — so this is a comparison against the whole local labor market for the occupation, not against private-sector pay. OEWS wages are straight-time pay and exclude overtime, shift differentials, and employer-paid benefits, so the government figure shown here is base pay on the same basis. Total compensation is not comparable to it. Job titles are matched to the closest standard occupation, so the comparison is between similar work rather than an identical job classification.

Compare departments

This role across California

Senior Architect is held in 10 California departments. In General Services, the median of $159,494 ranks #4 of 10.

Highest-paying departments for this role

Education
$176,601 · 1
Transportation
$168,096 · 7
Water Resources
$156,087 · 2
CDCR
$152,531 · 11

Median total compensation for the Senior Architect role in other Californiadepartments (highest first). Each bar links to that department’s page for this role.

Compare jurisdictions

Senior Architect beyond California

This role is reported in 4 jurisdictions. In California, the median of $157,254 ranks #2 of 4. See Senior Architect across all of California

Highest-paying jurisdictions for this role

Median total compensation for comparable Senior Architectroles in other jurisdictions. Titles are matched by normalized name across sources, not identical job classification, and pay is not cost-of-living adjusted. Each bar links to that jurisdiction’s page for the role.

Record list

Employees with this title

Page 1

Johnson Chen

Senior Architect/General Services

2024 total comp
$14,374
Sub-department
Office of State Architect
Base pay
$14,374
Overtime
$0
Other pay
$0
Benefits
$0
Total compensation
$14,374
Employment type
Full-Time
Union / bargaining unit
R09
Work county
Sacramento
Middle name
C

Source-specific fields

Base Pay
$13,625
Cs/csu
Cs
Position Number
7182253961003
Salary Total
$14,374
Total Pay
$14,374

Johnson Chen holds the role of Senior Architect at General Services within Office of State Architect. Their status is full-time. In 2024, their total compensation was $14,374. They are represented by R09.