Jobs / DevOps, SRE, and IT operations / 15-1242.00
Database Administrators
Administer, test, and implement computer databases, applying knowledge of database management systems. Coordinate changes to computer databases. Identify, investigate, and resolve database performance issues, database capacity, and database scalability. May plan, coordinate, and implement security measures to safeguard computer databases.
- US jobs
- 69,990
- Median wage
- $104,620 a year
- Job family
- DevOps, SRE, and IT operations
Can agents do the work of database administrators?
We read the evidence at the level of the job family, DevOps, SRE, and IT operations:
- Task levelPartialMixed. On SREGym, the best agent fixes 72.2% of injected faults end to end. On ITBench-AA, no model names the root cause of more than half of Kubernetes incidents (best 47%). Infrastructure as code has only generation tests with 2024-era results (IaC-Eval, 36.7%). We found no public benchmark with recent results that tests agents making Terraform changes to live infrastructure.
- Project levelUnexploredNo benchmark in our collection tests operations work at project scale, such as a multi-day migration, a platform upgrade, or an on-call rotation.
Benchmarks for this occupation
- 96.7%Genloop's Sentinel Agent v2 Pro · 1 Mar 2026Saturated
Benchmarks for the job family
These cover work in devops, sre, and it operations, not always this occupation's tasks.
- 36.7%GPT-4 with retrieval-augmented generation · 2024Emerging
- 47%Claude Opus 4.7 (Adaptive Reasoning, Max Effort) · 27 May 2026Emerging
- OSWorld-Verifiedby HKU, Salesforce AI Research, Carnegie Mellon University and University of Waterloo90.2%Intelligence-Indeed Agent · 25 Jul 2026Saturated
- 84.7%NexAU-AHE + GPT-5.5 · 23 Apr 2026Retired
Typical tasks
From O*NET 31.0. Core tasks first. Few of these tasks have a benchmark today.
- 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.
- Train users and answer questions.
- Provide technical support to junior staff or clients.
- Approve, schedule, plan, and supervise the installation and testing of new products and improvements to computer systems, such as the installation of new databases.
- Develop standards and guidelines for the use and acquisition of software and to protect vulnerable information.
- Write and code logical and physical database descriptions and specify identifiers of database to management system, or direct others in coding descriptions.
- Develop data models describing data elements and how they are used, following procedures and using pen, template, or computer software.
Other job titles for this occupation (40)
Database Administration Manager · Database Administrator (DBA) · Database Analyst · Database Coordinator · Database Engineer · Database Manager · Development and Database Administration Manager · IS Admin (Information Systems Administrator) · Systems Administrator (Systems Admin) · Administrator (Admin) · Automatic Data Processing Planner (ADP Planner) · Cyber Database Administrator (Cyber DBA) · Data Administrator (Data Admin) · Data Engineer · Data Management Associate · Data Management IT Specialist (Data Management Information Technology Specialist) · Data Miner · Data Recovery Planner · Data Security Administrator · Data Storage Specialist · Database Administration Associate · Database Design Analyst · Database Developer · Database Management System Specialist (DBMS Specialist) · Database Programmer · Database Security Administrator · Database Software Technician (Database Software Tech) · Database Specialist · Database Technician (Database Tech) · Database Tester · Databases Computer Consultant · Databases Software Consultant · ETL Developer (Extract, Transform and Load Developer) · Information Technology Administrator (IT Administrator) · Internet Database Specialist · IS Security Manager (Information Systems Security Manager) · Picture Archiving and Communication Systems Administrator (PACS Administrator) · Security Administrator · SQL DBA (Structured Query Language Database Administrator) · Systems Tester Admin (Systems Tester Administrator)