CCollegeMatcher

Database Architects

US occupation · SOC 15-1243

Job titles people report: Data Architect, Data Engineer, Data Officer, Database Analyst, Database Architect, Database Consultant, Database Developer, Database Programmer, Enterprise Architect, Information Architect

Pay and outlook

Median annual wage, May 2025
$139,500
Half earn more, half earn less
Middle half earn
$109,370 – $169,290
25th to 75th percentile
People employed, May 2025
67,140
Wage and salary jobs (OEWS)
Projected change, 2025–35
+9.4%
Growing at twice the all-jobs rate or more (7%+)
Openings a year (projected)
3,900
New jobs plus replacing people who leave
Typical education to enter
Bachelor's degree
BLS
  • All figures are for the United States as a whole. Pay varies a lot by state and city.
  • Wages are for everyone working in the occupation in May 2025, at every career stage. They are not starting salaries or figures for new graduates.
  • Growth and openings are BLS projections for 2025–35. They are estimates, not promises. Openings include jobs that open up when people retire or change occupation, not just new jobs.

What the work involves

Design strategies for enterprise databases, data warehouse systems, and multidimensional networks. Set standards for database operations, programming, query processes, and security. Model, design, and construct large relational databases or data warehouses. Create and optimize data models for warehouse infrastructure and workflow. Integrate new systems with existing warehouse structure and refine system performance and functionality.

Main tasks

  • Develop and document database architectures.
  • Collaborate with system architects, software architects, design analysts, and others to understand business or industry requirements.
  • Develop database architectural strategies at the modeling, design and implementation stages to address business or industry requirements.
  • Design databases to support business applications, ensuring system scalability, security, performance, and reliability.
  • Develop data models for applications, metadata tables, views or related database structures.
  • Design database applications, such as interfaces, data transfer mechanisms, global temporary tables, data partitions, and function-based indexes to enable efficient access of the generic database structure.
  • Develop methods for integrating different products so they work properly together, such as customizing commercial databases to fit specific needs.
  • Create and enforce database development standards.

More specific O*NET® occupations under this one: Data Warehousing Specialists.

Description and tasks from the O*NET® 31.0 Database.

Getting in

Typical education to enter (BLS)
Bachelor's degree
Work experience in a related job: less than 5 years
O*NET Job Zone 4
Considerable preparation
Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

Interests it suits

The strongest of the six O*NET interest types for this occupation, highest first. The short glosses are ours.

  • Conventional: organising information, records and procedures
  • Investigative: research, analysis and solving problems with ideas
  • Enterprising: leading, persuading and making business decisions

Fields of study that lead here

From the federal CIP–SOC crosswalk, which links 14 programmes to this occupation. A link means the programme prepares people for this kind of work. It doesn't mean the programme is required, or that it's the only route.

Business

  • Management Information Systems, General

Find colleges that fit you with our matcher: choose Business at the Major step.

Where many students take business

Ordered by the field's share of degrees awarded times undergraduate enrolment (College Scorecard), among colleges with at least 1,000 undergraduates. Online universities are included. It's a rough measure of how big the programme is. It says nothing about quality. The share counts every programme in the field, not only the ones linked to this career.

Computer Science

  • Computer and Information Sciences, General
  • Information Technology
  • Information Science/Studies
  • Computer Systems Analysis/Analyst
  • Computer Science
  • Data Modeling/Warehousing and Database Administration
  • Cloud Computing
  • Computer and Information Systems Security/Auditing/Information Assurance

Find colleges that fit you with our matcher: choose Computer Science at the Major step.

Where many students take computer science

Ordered by the field's share of degrees awarded times undergraduate enrolment (College Scorecard), among colleges with at least 1,000 undergraduates. Online universities are included. It's a rough measure of how big the programme is. It says nothing about quality. The share counts every programme in the field, not only the ones linked to this career.

Engineering

  • Computer Engineering, General
  • Computer Software Engineering
  • Systems Engineering

Find colleges that fit you with our matcher: choose Engineering at the Major step.

Where many students take engineering

Ordered by the field's share of degrees awarded times undergraduate enrolment (College Scorecard), among colleges with at least 1,000 undergraduates. Online universities are included. It's a rough measure of how big the programme is. It says nothing about quality. The share counts every programme in the field, not only the ones linked to this career.

Other fields

Our college matcher doesn't offer this field as a major, so we can't suggest colleges for it here.

Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies

  • Data Science, General
  • Data Science, Other

Related careers

Related occupations from the O*NET database, in its order.

← All careers

Sources

This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. CollegeMatcher has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET 31.0 Database · CC BY 4.0

Changes: we show the core tasks in the O*NET database with the highest importance ratings (up to eight, in that order), the top three O*NET interest types by score, and shortened Job Zone names. Titles, descriptions and task text are unchanged.

Wages: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Projections, typical entry education and training: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025–35. Fields of study: NCES and BLS CIP 2020–SOC 2018 Crosswalk. All public domain. OEWS · Employment Projections · CIP–SOC crosswalk