Role profile
Database administrator
Also called: DBA · Database architect · Database engineer · Data platform engineer (overlaps) · Site reliability engineer for databases (overlaps)
Database administrators keep an organization's databases available, fast, backed up and secure, and database architects design how that data is structured in the first place. They work for IT service firms, insurers, banks, hospitals, government agencies and software companies.
- Median pay, 2025
- $104,620
- $60,230 to $163,320 (10th to 90th percentile)
- US jobs, 2025
- 75,000
- Database administrators
- Outlook, 2025-35
- 0%
- Little or no change
- Typical entry
- Bachelor's degree
- Experience: See How to Become One
What the work looks like
- Check backups actually restore, not just that the backup job reported success.
- Find and fix slow queries using execution plans, indexes and the occasional polite talk with the developer who wrote them.
- Plan and run schema changes and version upgrades with minimal downtime.
- Manage user access, roles and encryption settings, and produce evidence for audits.
- Monitor replication, disk growth and connection limits, and get paged when one of them goes wrong.
- Move databases between on-premises servers and managed cloud services such as Amazon RDS or Azure SQL.
- Write scripts to automate routine maintenance so it stops depending on someone remembering.
How people get in
The BLS lists a bachelor's degree in a computer-related field as typical, and some employers prefer a master's focused on data management. Strong SQL is the non-negotiable skill.
Few people start as a DBA. The usual routes are from software development (the developer who became the database person on the team), from systems administration, or from data analyst work with heavy SQL. Junior DBA roles do exist at large enterprises and IT service firms, but they are not common.
Vendor certifications from Microsoft, Oracle or the cloud providers can help when an employer runs that specific product. Experienced DBAs often move up to database architect, which the BLS reports as the higher-paid and faster-growing part of this occupation.
Skills employers ask for
- SQL (advanced)
- PostgreSQL
- Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle
- Query tuning and indexing
- Backup, restore and point-in-time recovery
- Replication and high availability
- Linux shell
- Python or PowerShell scripting
- Managed cloud databases (RDS, Azure SQL, Cloud SQL)
- Access control and encryption
Outlook to 2035
The BLS projects 4% growth for the combined group from 2025 to 2035, about as fast as average, but the split matters: database architects are projected to grow 9% while database administrators are flat at 0%. Managed cloud databases now handle much of the patching, backups and failover that used to fill a DBA's week. The growing work is in design, performance and data platform decisions, so plan your skills toward the architect end.
The BLS groups database administrators with database architects (144,500 jobs combined, $126,760 median). Architects earn more ($139,500 median) and are projected to grow 9%, while administrators are projected to hold steady.
How the pay compares
Database administrator highlighted against the other 13 roles we track.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Database administrators. Pay is 2025 median annual wage; outlook is projected employment change 2025-35.