Database Administrator Career Guide for 2027
- Median annual pay
- $104,620
- BLS OEWS, May 2025
- Projected growth, 2025-35
- -0.1%
- BLS Employment Projections
- Typical entry education
- Bachelor’s
- BLS Employment Projections
Key takeaways
- Database administrators keep an organization’s data stored, secure, fast and recoverable. BLS counts 69,990 of them, earning a median of $104,620 in May 2025. BLS lists no prior work experience as typical for entry, so new graduates can start here.
- BLS lists a bachelor’s degree as the typical entry education, and O*NET’s survey found 89% of database administrators hold one. Computer science, software engineering and information systems all lead here; choose one that includes database design, SQL, operating systems and security courses, since those are the parts of the degree the job uses every day.
- The outlook is the catch. BLS projects employment to stay flat from 2025 to 2035 (-0.1%), against 3.5% growth for all occupations, because the job’s tasks are increasingly automated and folded into other roles. There will still be about 3,300 openings a year, all from people retiring or changing jobs.
- Computer systems design and related services employs the most, followed by government (federal, state and local). Utah has the highest state median, $135,750, and California the most database administrators. Because every large organization keeps data it can’t lose, the job turns up in government agencies, universities and insurers as well as tech firms.
- The safest way to plan this career is to treat database skills as a base and build toward database architecture, data engineering or cloud work. BLS publishes no pay by level, so this guide shows the full range instead. Pay by state, metro and industry is in the database administrator salary report.
What database administrators do
Counted by BLS as database administrators.
Database administrators make sure an organization’s data is stored safely, can be found quickly and survives a failure. They install and upgrade database software, set access rules, tune performance, and plan and test backups and recovery.
BLS counts them as database administrators; database architects, who design data systems, are a separate occupation. The tasks below, from O*NET, show the mix of maintenance, security and testing.
The core tasks
- Modify existing databases and database management systems or direct programmers and analysts to make changes.
- Plan, coordinate, and implement security measures to safeguard information in computer files against accidental or unauthorized damage, modification or disclosure.
- Plan and install upgrades of database management system software to enhance database performance.
- Specify users and user access levels for each segment of database.
- Test changes to database applications or systems.
- Test programs or databases, correct errors, and make necessary modifications.
Task statements for database administrators, quoted from O*NET OnLine, in O*NET’s order of importance.
Job titles you will see
- Database Administration Manager
- Database Administrator
- Database Analyst
- Database Coordinator
- Database Engineer
- Database Manager
- Development and Database Administration Manager
- IS Admin
- Systems Administrator
Titles reported by workers in this occupation, O*NET OnLine.
Where database administrators work
The largest employers of database administrators among the 24 industries we checked, BLS OEWS, May 2025.
Firms in computer systems design and related services employ the most database administrators, followed by government (federal, state and local) and management of companies and enterprises. Insurance companies, universities and banks run large databases of their own and hire for them directly.
Database Administrators, national industry-specific estimates, BLS OEWS, May 2025. A candidate list of industries, ranked by employment; not BLS’s complete industry ranking. Share is the industry’s employment divided by the occupation’s national employment, 69,990.
Ways to become a database administrator
BLS lists a bachelor’s degree as the typical entry education. Lengths are NCES’s definitions of each degree.
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A bachelor’s in computer scienceusually at least four years of full-time study · median 120 credits
Take the database, operating systems and security courses, and build projects that store, query and back up real data.
Compare computer science bachelor’s programs → -
A bachelor’s in software engineeringusually at least four years of full-time study · median 121 credits
Design and testing courses carry over to schema design and keeping production data safe.
Compare software engineering bachelor’s programs → -
Straight into a junior roleusually at least four years of full-time study
BLS lists no prior work experience as typical for entry, so you can apply for junior administrator or analyst roles straight from school.
Compare online computer science bachelor’s programs → -
A master’s latergenerally one or two years of full-time study beyond the bachelor’s · median 30 credits
Not required, but it can help a move toward data architecture or data engineering.
Compare computer science master’s programs →
Degree lengths: NCES, Digest of Education Statistics 2022, Appendix B: Definitions. Credits: the median of the programs in each ranking that state a credit total on their own page.
What employers expect
BLS’s typical entry requirements for database administrators, BLS Employment Projections, occupation tables 1.2, 1.10 and 1.12, 2025-35.
- Typical entry education
- Bachelor’s degree
- Work experience in a related occupation
- None
- Typical on-the-job training
- None
What workers say a new hire needs
Share of surveyed workers in the occupation giving each answer, O*NET OnLine. Not a hiring requirement.
Programs to start with
The top two programs in each of our rankings, with the score and rank they carry there.
- California State University-Long Beach #1 in our Computer Science Degrees for Software Engineers Score 94.1 of 100
- California State University-Fullerton #2 in our Computer Science Degrees for Software Engineers Score 93.0 of 100
- San Jose State University #1 in our Bachelor’s in Software Engineering Score 87.0 of 100
- Florida Gulf Coast University #2 in our Bachelor’s in Software Engineering Score 85.2 of 100
- North Carolina State University at Raleigh #1 in our Master’s in Computer Science for Software Engineers Score 96.6 of 100
- Texas A&M University #2 in our Master’s in Computer Science for Software Engineers Score 93.7 of 100
What the degree costs
IPEDS tuition, 2023–24, at the programs in our rankings: in-state undergraduate for bachelor’s, the school’s average graduate rate for master’s.
Tuition is before fees, housing and financial aid, and it is the school-wide IPEDS figure, so the price a student pays can differ widely from the sticker. Public schools charging in-state rates sit at the low end of the bachelor’s range.
For what the job pays, the database administrator salary report shows pay in every state, the largest metro areas and across industries.
Database administrator pay and job outlook
Database Administrators, BLS OEWS, May 2025; BLS Employment Projections, 2025-35.
Top-paying factors
Where the highest medians are, against the national median of $104,620. Each is a published median from the same release, not an estimate for any one person.
Database Administrators, BLS OEWS, May 2025: state, metropolitan area and national industry-specific medians.
Half of database administrators earned more than $104,620 in May 2025 and half earned less; the middle half fell between $79,610 and $135,460. Utah has the highest state median, $135,750. BLS publishes no pay by years of experience, so this guide gives the range, not a ladder of salaries. The database administrator salary report breaks pay down by state, metro and industry.
How the career moves
Typical stages. Titles and scope change by employer; BLS publishes no stages or pay by level.
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Junior database administrator
Junior DBA · Database Analyst · Data Support Specialist
Run backups, apply patches, set up user access and fix slow queries under a senior administrator’s eye. The job is learning one database system deeply and the habits that keep data safe.
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Database administrator
Database Administrator · Database Engineer · Production DBA
Own a set of production databases: keep them fast and available, plan upgrades, test recovery, and work with developers on how their applications use the data.
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Senior or specialist
Senior DBA · Cloud Database Engineer · Database Security Administrator
Take on the hard problems: migrations to the cloud, performance at large scale, security and compliance. Automation skills matter most here, since much routine work is now scripted.
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Architect or lead
Database Architect · Data Engineering Lead · Database Administration Manager
Design how the organization’s data is structured and stored, choose the platforms, or lead the team that runs them. Many move sideways into data engineering at this stage.
Pros and cons
What people like about being a database administrator, and what wears on them.
What draws people in
- Pro: A bachelor’s and no prior experience is the typical way in.
- Pro: Pay above most occupations, with a median over six figures.
- Pro: Skills that carry into data engineering, cloud and security work.
- Pro: Employers in every industry, including government and universities.
What to weigh first
- Con: BLS projects flat employment, as automation and cloud services absorb routine tasks.
- Con: You answer for data loss and downtime, and fixes often happen after hours.
- Con: Much of the job is careful, repetitive maintenance.
- Con: Skills tied to one database product can lose value when an employer changes platforms.
A day in the job
Illustrative: a composite day built from the job’s core tasks, not a record of one person’s day. Real days vary by team and employer.
- MorningChecking that every overnight backup finished and that no database ran short of space or memory.
- Late morningWorking with a developer on a slow report, reading the query plan and adding the index that fixes it.
- AfternoonTesting a database upgrade on a copy of production before it goes live this weekend.
- Late afternoonReviewing who has access to sensitive tables and removing accounts that no longer need it.
- End of dayScripting a routine task so it runs itself next time, and documenting the change.
Five questions before you commit
If most of these get a yes, the job is likely a good match.
- Do you like keeping systems running smoothly?Most of the job is prevention, so success looks like nothing going wrong.
- Are you careful with details?One wrong command on a production database can lose data for everyone.
- Do you enjoy making slow things fast?Tuning queries and storage is a large part of the day.
- Will you keep moving toward automation and the cloud?BLS expects routine work to keep shrinking, so the growth is in the newer skills.
- Can you work calmly during an outage?When a database goes down, the whole organization notices.
Frequently asked questions
What does a database administrator do?
They set up, secure, tune and back up the databases an organization depends on, and decide who can see what. O*NET’s top task for the occupation is to “Modify existing databases and database management systems or direct programmers and analysts to make changes.”
What degree do you need to be a database administrator?
BLS lists a bachelor’s degree as the typical entry education, usually in computer science, information systems, software engineering or a related field. BLS lists no prior work experience as typical for entry.
How much do database administrators make?
Database administrators earned a median of $104,620 in May 2025, according to BLS. The 10th percentile was $60,230 and the 90th was $163,320.
Is database administrator a dying job?
Not dying, but not growing. BLS projects employment to stay flat from 2025 to 2035 (-0.1%) because more of the work is automated and folded into other roles. About 3,300 openings a year will still come up as people retire or change jobs.
What is the difference between a database administrator and a database architect?
An administrator runs and protects existing databases day to day; an architect designs how an organization’s data is structured and stored in the first place. BLS counts architects as a separate occupation, and many administrators move into that work.
Can a software engineering degree lead to database administration?
Yes. Software engineering and computer science degrees cover databases, data structures and operating systems. Take the database, security and systems electives, and learn SQL and at least one major database system well.
Where do database administrators work?
Computer systems design and related services employs the most, 10,430, followed by government (federal, state and local) and management of companies and enterprises.
How much does the degree path cost?
At the 75 bachelor’s programs in our software engineering ranking with a figure, median in-state tuition for 2023–24 was $20,696 a year, before fees and aid.
References
Every figure on this page comes from one of these, read by the site’s data scripts and computed at build time, never typed in.
- 1 Database Administrators, O*NET OnLine Task statements and reported job titles, quoted verbatim, and the education survey of workers in the occupation. O*NET OnLine, read 2026-10-06.
- 2 BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025: national, industry Database administrators: employment, median and percentiles nationally, and employment and median in the 24 industries we checked. Read .
- 3 BLS Employment Projections, 2025-35 Projected employment change and annual openings, 2025 to 2035, for database administrators and the related occupations.
- 4 BLS Employment Projections, occupation tables 1.2, 1.10 and 1.12, 2025-35 Table 1.2: BLS’s typical entry education, work experience and on-the-job training.
- 5 NCES, Digest of Education Statistics 2022, Appendix B: Definitions Definitions of the bachelor’s and master’s degree, including their usual length in full-time study.
- 6 NCES IPEDS IC2023_AY, 2023-24: undergraduate tuition for bachelor’s programs; for master’s, the school-wide average graduate tuition, which excludes program fees Tuition for the 75 ranked bachelor’s and 44 ranked master’s programs, the same figures the ranking pages show.
- 7 BLS Employment Projections, occupation tables 1.2, 1.10 and 1.12, 2025-35: tables 1.2 and 1.12 Typical entry education for database administrators, and BLS’s stated factor behind the flat projection: tasks increasingly automated and consolidated into other roles.