The roles of Salesforce Administrator and Salesforce Developer overlap to a certain extent so how do you know which one to hire? Let’s take a closer look at the skillset each one brings to the job and then you can better decide which one will better meet your needs.
What is a Salesforce Administrator?
According to Salesforce, “Salesforce Administrators work with stakeholders to define requirements and to customize the platform. A Salesforce Admin best understands how to make the platform work for their company’s unique needs.” Salesforce Administrators are required to have a broad knowledge of the platform and how to manage applications within the software.
Optimizing Salesforce could include some or all of these types of tasks.
- Making changes to Page Layouts
- Creating Assignment Rules
- Adding New Users and Updating Existing Accounts
- Configuring Data Access
- Building Reports Using Salesforce Data
- Loading Data and Maintaining It
Essentially, a Salesforce Administrator is the gatekeeper or authority that grants access to a company’s sales and marketing data and they provide needed support to Salesforce developers, stakeholders, and clients.
What is a Salesforce Developer?
Unlike a Salesforce Administrator who works within the Salesforce platform, a Salesforce developer must be able to integrate Salesforce with other systems. Once those integrations are in place, then a developer will customize the Salesforce environment for a particular client.
A Salesforce Developer should have a broad range of developing skills.
- Data modeling
- Platform development
- Salesforce app customization
- Apex programming
- Visualforce basics
- Salesforce object query language
- Lightning framework
In essence, a Salesforce developer shapes the database and an administrator makes sure that the user gets the most out of it.
Filling Salesforce Positions
You can direct-hire either a Salesforce developer or administrator, however, the need for a developer is often precipitated by new systems or process changes. In that case, you may want to partner with a Salesforce staffing company. They can connect you with temp-to-hire or contract developers for short or even long-term projects. A Salesforce administrator’s role is more of an ongoing support role and so a direct-hire might be the better decision. Most Salesforce staffing companies also double as recruitment agencies and can help you find the right candidate for your position.
Why TechBridge?
If you need a developer or administrator experienced with the Salesforce Marketing Cloud, who can get the job done seamlessly and quickly, contact us. We have Salesforce professionals looking for direct-hire or temp-to-hire positions. We seek to build lasting relationships with both candidates and businesses. That way we can connect senior developers, leads, and architects with the businesses that need their services.
