Network and computer systems administrators: pay, outlook and skills
Install, configure, and maintain an organization's local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), data communications network, operating systems, and physical and virtual servers. Perform system monitoring and verify the integrity and availability of hardware, network, and server resources and systems. Review system and application logs and verify completion of scheduled jobs, including system backups. Analyze network and server resource consumption and control user access. Install and upgrade software and maintain software licenses. May assist in network modeling, analysis, planning, and coordination between network and data communications hardware and software.
Pay distribution and location comparison
These are published pay distribution points for everyone working in this occupation, not pay levels for junior, mid, or senior roles. Location figures are pay as published; no cost-of-living adjustment is applied.
United States, all industries
| Pay point | United States | Selected area |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $62,640 | - |
| 25th percentile | $78,010 | - |
| Median | $99,130 | - |
| 75th percentile | $126,640 | - |
| 90th percentile | $155,050 | - |
| People employed | 314,340 | - |
Source: OEWS May 2025, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (imported 9/17/2026) official file Reference period: OEWS May 2025.
Long-term outlook
Official ten-year projection for 2025 to 2035. Projected annual openings are an average per year over the decade, including openings from workers leaving the occupation. They are not a count of jobs open today.
Source: BLS Employment Projections 2025-2035, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (imported 9/17/2026) official file Employment is published in thousands of jobs and converted here to people.
OptimizeResume analysis using U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. This is not a BLS statistic or a prediction that an individual will be hired.
Score trend
Historical scores may be restated when BLS revises underlying data. The chart uses the latest restated values.
Confidence
- At least 90% of required inputs and occupation-industry mapping are covered.
How this score is built
Monthly industry demand is mapped to this occupation using official occupation-industry relationships, then combined with occupation fundamentals and long-term projections.
Read Methodology v1.0Skills, software, and day-to-day work
Skill values are O*NET importance ratings on a 1-5 scale for the occupation itself. They describe what the work requires, not how much employers are hiring right now.
Most important skills
- Active Listening4.0 / 5
- Judgment and Decision Making4.0 / 5
- Systems Analysis4.0 / 5
- Systems Evaluation4.0 / 5
- Troubleshooting4.0 / 5
- Complex Problem Solving3.9 / 5
- Critical Thinking3.9 / 5
- Monitoring3.9 / 5
- Reading Comprehension3.9 / 5
- Operations Monitoring3.5 / 5
- Programming3.5 / 5
- Quality Control Analysis3.4 / 5
O*NET importance rating, 1 (not important) to 5 (extremely important).
Software and technology
- Development environment softwareMicrosoft Azure software (in demand for this occupation) (hot technology), Microsoft PowerShell (in demand for this occupation) (hot technology), Apache Kafka (hot technology), Apache Maven (hot technology), C (hot technology), Eclipse IDE (hot technology)
- Data base user interface and query softwareAmazon Web Services AWS software (in demand for this occupation) (hot technology), ServiceNow (in demand for this occupation) (hot technology), Structured query language SQL (in demand for this occupation) (hot technology), Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud EC2 (hot technology), Amazon Redshift (hot technology), Microsoft Access (hot technology)
- Operating system softwareBash (in demand for this occupation) (hot technology), Linux (in demand for this occupation) (hot technology), Microsoft Windows Server (in demand for this occupation) (hot technology), Red Hat Enterprise Linux (in demand for this occupation) (hot technology), UNIX (in demand for this occupation) (hot technology), Apple macOS (hot technology)
- Object or component oriented development softwarePython (in demand for this occupation) (hot technology), C# (hot technology), C++ (hot technology), jQuery (hot technology), Oracle Java (hot technology), Perl (hot technology)
- Internet directory services softwareMicrosoft Active Directory (in demand for this occupation) (hot technology), Active directory software, Berkeley Internet Domain Name BIND, Domain name system DNS, Network addressable storage NAS software
- Network security and virtual private network VPN equipment softwareFirewall software (in demand for this occupation), Network intrusion detection software, Virtual private networking VPN software
- Electronic mail softwareMicrosoft Outlook (in demand for this occupation) (hot technology), IBM Notes, Microsoft Exchange
- Document management softwareMicrosoft SharePoint (in demand for this occupation) (hot technology), Adobe Acrobat (hot technology)
- Expert system softwareAnsible software (in demand for this occupation) (hot technology)
- Spreadsheet softwareMicrosoft Excel (in demand for this occupation) (hot technology)
- Office suite softwareMicrosoft Office software (in demand for this occupation) (hot technology)
- Web platform development softwareAJAX (hot technology), Apache Tomcat (hot technology), Django (hot technology), Hypertext markup language HTML (hot technology), JavaScript (hot technology), JavaScript Object Notation JSON (hot technology)
O*NET marks individual examples only. “Hot technology” means the tool is frequently named across job postings generally; “in demand for this occupation” means O*NET recorded it as required by employers for this occupation. Unmarked examples are still commonly used.
Typical tasks
- Plan, coordinate, and implement network security measures to protect data, software, and hardware.
- Perform data backups and disaster recovery operations.
- Diagnose, troubleshoot, and resolve hardware, software, or other network and system problems, and replace defective components when necessary.
- Maintain and administer computer networks and related computing environments, including computer hardware, systems software, applications software, and all configurations.
- Configure, monitor, and maintain email applications or virus protection software.
- Confer with network users about solutions to existing system problems.
- Operate master consoles to monitor the performance of computer systems and networks and to coordinate computer network access and use.
- Maintain logs related to network functions, as well as maintenance and repair records.
- Monitor network performance to determine whether adjustments are needed and where changes will be needed in the future.
- Design, configure, and test computer hardware, networking software and operating system software.
Also advertised as: LAN Administrator (Local Area Network Administrator), LAN Specialist (Local Area Network Specialist), Network Administrator (Network Admin), Network Analyst, Network Coordinator, Network Engineer, Network Manager, Network Specialist.
Check your resume against a real job posting
This page describes the occupation in general. A free scan compares your own resume with the specific job description you are applying to, requirement by requirement, and shows where your real experience is already strong and where it is simply not documented yet. Only experience you actually have should ever be added.
Scan my resume freeSource: O*NET Database version 31.0 by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. Used under CC BY 4.0. OptimizeResume has modified the data for display only: selected the most important rated skills, grouped software examples by category while keeping each example’s official flags, and shortened the task list.
Guides for applying to this work
Sources and how to read this page
Source: OEWS May 2025, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (imported 9/17/2026) official file
Source: BLS Employment Projections 2025-2035, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (imported 9/17/2026) official file
O*NET 31.0 Database version 31.0 by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under CC BY 4.0 and modified for display on this page. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
How each number should be read
- Pay percentiles describe the spread of pay across everyone in the occupation, not experience levels.
- Employment counts are jobs, not people hired during the year.
- Projected annual openings are a decade average from the official projection, not current vacancies.
- O*NET skill ratings describe the work, not employer hiring demand.
- Values BLS did not publish, suppressed, or top-coded are shown as such and never treated as zero.