---
title: "Network and Computer Systems Administrator"
description: "Install, configure, and maintain an organization's local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), data communications network, operating systems, and…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/network-and-computer-systems-administrator"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Network and Computer Systems Administrator

**Category:** Computer and Mathematical · **SOC code:** 15-1244 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 15-1244.00

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.

Also advertised as: Information Analyst; Information Technology Specialist (IT Specialist); LAN Specialist (Local Area Network Specialist); Local Area Network Administrator (LAN Administrator); Network Administrator; Network Coordinator; Network Manager; Systems Administrator (Systems Admin).

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $99,130 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $47.66/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $62,640 to $155,050, with the middle half between $78,010 and $126,640
- **Total US employment:** 314,340
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** -4.2% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 14,300 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 25/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 314,340 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $62,640 |
| 25th | $78,010 |
| 50th (median) | $99,130 |
| 75th | $126,640 |
| 90th | $155,050 |
| Mean (average) | $103,680 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| MD | $118,290 | $112,701 | 9,230 |
| NJ | $116,420 | $106,999 | 9,280 |
| MA | $110,980 | $104,939 | 8,270 |
| DC | $110,970 | $100,973 | 1,320 |
| VA | $109,610 | $108,413 | 12,430 |
| CA | $106,440 | $96,134 | 26,170 |
| CT | $105,880 | $102,191 | 2,170 |
| NY | $105,810 | $98,044 | 18,220 |
| WA | $103,910 | $97,100 | 8,600 |
| NV | $103,440 | $103,462 | 1,980 |
| CO | $103,370 | $100,309 | 8,360 |
| RI | $103,100 | $100,802 | 1,060 |
| OR | $102,000 | $98,683 | 4,880 |
| MN | $101,870 | $103,294 | 4,550 |
| HI | $101,450 | $92,268 | 1,490 |

38 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 53 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/network-and-computer-systems-administrator/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/network-and-computer-systems-administrator.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 331,500 in the 2024–2034 base year to 317,700 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 13,800 jobs, or -4.2%. Declining: -4.2% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 14,300 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Bachelor's Degree | 52.4% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 20.3% |
| Master's Degree | 10.1% |
| Some College Courses | 9.7% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 7.5% |

## What the work involves

- 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.
- Confer with network users about solutions to existing system problems.
- Perform routine network startup and shutdown procedures, and maintain control records.
- Design, configure, and test computer hardware, networking software and operating system software.
- Monitor network performance to determine whether adjustments are needed and where changes will be needed in the future.
- Train people in computer system use.
- Recommend changes to improve systems and network configurations, and determine hardware or software requirements related to such changes.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Troubleshooting — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Programming — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Computers and Electronics — importance 4.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Engineering and Technology — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Telecommunications — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Information Ordering — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Conventional (C), Realistic (R), Investigative (I).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| C — Conventional | 6.18 |
| R — Realistic | 4.19 |
| I — Investigative | 4.04 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.46 |
| S — Social | 2.22 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 92.5 |
| ESTJ | 84.6 |
| ISFJ | 77.2 |
| INTJ | 67.1 |
| ISTP | 64.9 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Computer Network Support Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/computer-network-support-specialist) — median $76,220
- [Database Administrator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/database-administrator) — median $104,620
- [Computer Network Architect](https://nuecareer.com/careers/computer-network-architect) — median $134,050
- [Computer Systems Engineers/Architect](https://nuecareer.com/careers/computer-systems-engineers-architect) — median $116,580
- [Computer Systems Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/computer-systems-analyst) — median $105,850
- [Information Security Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/information-security-engineer) — median $116,580
- [Information Security Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/information-security-analyst) — median $129,180
- [Computer User Support Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/computer-user-support-specialist) — median $61,860
- [Software Developer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/software-developer) — median $135,980
- [Database Architect](https://nuecareer.com/careers/database-architect) — median $139,500

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/network-and-computer-systems-administrator