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Do you want to go deep into databases?
The following career paths for coders interested in the broad database space are ordered alphabetically. The table shows the annual income of different job descriptions in the database space:
| Job/Career Description | Annual Income $USD (Lower) | Annual Income $USD (Higher) |
|---|---|---|
| Cassandra Developer | 110,000 | 145,000 |
| Couchbase Developer | 87,000 | 212,000 |
| Database Administrator | 83,000 | 131,000 |
| Database Developer | 72,000 | 135,000 |
| DynamoDB Developer | 70,000 | 160,000 |
| IBM DB2 Developer | 90,000 | 132,000 |
| MariaDB Developer | 70,000 | 100,000 |
| Microsoft SQL Server Developer | 74,000 | 137,000 |
| MongoDB Developer | 59,000 | 146,000 |
| MS Access Developer | 45,000 | 75,000 |
| MySQL Developer | 87,000 | 149,000 |
| Oracle Developer | 86,000 | 107,000 |
| PL-SQL Developer | 72,000 | 103,000 |
| PostgreSQL Developer | 104,000 | 133,000 |
| RavenDB Developer | 101,000 | 130,000 |
| Redis Developer | 100,000 | 126,000 |
| SQL Developer | 76,000 | 87,000 |
| SQLite Developer | 49,000 | 107,000 |
Let’s dive into each of those job descriptions next!
Cassandra Developer
Cassandra is a free, open-source, distributed, NoSQL database management system (DBMS) for large amounts of data that may be distributed across many commodity servers.
A Cassandra developer manages the Cassandra system and integrates applications with the database storage solution and API.
The average annual income of a Cassandra Developer is between $110,000 and $145,500, according to Glassdoor (source).
Do you want to become a Cassandra Developer? Here’s a learning path I’d propose in five steps to get started:
- Step 1: Introduction to Computer Science (~40 hours)
- Step 2: Introduction to Databases (~20 hours)
- Step 2: Introduction to Distributed Systems (~10 hours)
- Step 3: Introduction to Apache Cassandra (~20 hours)
Learn More: Feel free to read my full guide on this career role on this Finxter blog article.
Couchbase Developer
Couchbase is an open-source, distributed NoSQL database infrastructure for interactive applications to serve concurrent users.
A Couchbase developer creates applications using this infrastructure—mostly for business clients.
The average Couchbase salary ranges from approximately $87,504 per year for an Inside Sales Representative to $212,621 per year for a Senior Software Engineer (source).
Learn More: Feel free to read my full guide on this career role in this Finxter blog article.
Database Administrator
A database administrator (DBA) is an IT professional responsible for maintaining the reliable, efficient, and secure execution of a database management system (DBMS).
In this way, a database administrator is responsible for providing the data infrastructure of a company or organization. This involves installing, configuring, debugging, optimizing, securing, troubleshooting, and managing database systems.
DBAs can either work as employees or as freelancers remotely or onsite.
The average annual income of a Database Administrator in the United States is between $83,533 and $131,056, with an average of $100,920 and a statistical median of $98,860 per year.
Learn More: Feel free to read my full guide on this career role in this Finxter blog article.
Database Developer
A database engineer is responsible for providing the data infrastructure of a company or organization. This involves designing, creating, installing, configuring, debugging, optimizing, securing, and managing databases.
Database engineers can either work as employees or as freelancers remotely or onsite.
A database engineer has the following responsibilities:
- Creating a new database system.
- Finding a database system tailored to the needs of an organization.
- Designing the data models.
- Accessing the data with scripting languages including SQL-like syntax.
- Installing an existing database software system onsite.
- Configuring a database system.
- Optimizing a database management system for performance, speed, or reliability.
- Consulting management regarding data management issues.
- Keeping databases secure and providing proper access control to users.
- Monitoring and managing an existing database system to keep it running smoothly.
- Debugging potential bugs, errors, and security issues detected at runtime.
- Testing and deploying a database system on a public cloud infrastructure such as AWS.
- Handling distribution issues in the case of a distributed database management system.
- Ensuring budget adherence when running on a public cloud and estimating costs for private database solutions.
- Communicating and negotiating with salespeople (e.g., from Oracle).
The average annual income of a Database Engineer in the United States is between $72,536 and $135,000, with an average of $103,652 and a statistical median of $106,589 per year.
Learn More: Feel free to read my full guide on this career role in this Finxter blog article.
DynamoDB Developer
Amazon’s DynamoDB is a NoSQL, serverless, key-value database for high-performance applications. It is fully managed so a DynamoDB developer usually helps clients set up and connect to the database—and provides minimal maintenance support.
As a DynamoDB Developer, you can expect to earn between $70,000 and $160,000 per year according to Google (source).
Do you want to become a DynamoDB Developer?
Here’s a learning path I’d propose in five steps to get started:
- Step 1: Introduction to Computer Science (~40 hours)
- Step 2: Introduction to Distributed Systems (~20 hours)
- Step 3: Introduction to Databases (~10 hours)
- Step 4: Introduction to DynamoDB (~10 hours)
- Step 5: Introduction to Web Services (~10 hours)
Learn More: Feel free to read my full guide on this career role in this Finxter blog article.
IBM DB2 Developer
Note: If I may be so blunt—I don’t recommend this career path anymore due to the “dying” interest in IBM DB2 technology.
IBM DB2 is a data processing and storage solution that helps developers quickly build and deploy applications such as natural language querying and AI. An IBM DB2 developer creates apps for and integrates them into this system.
The average annual income of an IBM DB2 Developer is $132,000 according to Glassdoor (source).
Learn More: Feel free to read my full guide on this career role on this Finxter blog article.
MariaDB Developer
MariaDB is a database framework focusing on relational databases that are compatible with Oracle. MariaDB developers provide value to clients by integrating their applications with new or existing MariaDB databases. (Source)
The average annual income of a MariaDB Developer is $85,000 according to Payscale (source).
Learn More: Feel free to read my full guide on this career role on this Finxter blog article.
Microsoft SQL Server Developer
Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system (RDBMS) to store and retrieve data on the same computer or across a network. A Microsoft SQL Server Developer creates and connects applications that access the Microsoft SQL Server API. (Source)
The average annual income of a Microsoft SQL Server Developer is between $74,000 and $137,500 according to Ziprecruiter (source):
Learn More: Feel free to read my full guide on this career role in this Finxter blog article.
MongoDB Developer
The average annual income of a MongoDB Developer is $92,414 with a most likely range between $59,000 and $146,000 and a top earner income of $222,000 according to Glassdoor (source).
MongoDB is a source-available cross-platform document-oriented database program. As a NoSQL database program, MongoDB uses JSON-like documents with optional schemas.
A MongoDB developer implements, maintains, and designs MongoDB database applications. (Source)
Learn More: Feel free to read my full guide on this career role in this Finxter blog article.
MS Access Developer
The average annual income of an MS Access Developer is between $45,000 (25th percentile) and $75,000 (75th percentile) according to Ziprecruiter with top developers making $122,000 and more (source).
A Microsoft Access Developer developer creates, edits, analyzes, debugs, and supervises the development of software written in the MS Access programming language.
MS Access is a database system. Although it isn’t used that much anymore, it is still a great tool for small projects. And there is a huge number of legacy systems that depend upon MS Access. (Source)
Learn More: Feel free to read my full guide on this career role in this Finxter blog article.
MySQL Developer
A MySQL Developer is responsible for database administration, such as performance optimization, troubleshooting, problem-solving, and customer support.
The average annual income of a MySQL Developer is between $87,828 and $149,975, according to Glassdoor (source).
Learn More: Feel free to read my full guide on this career role in this Finxter blog article.
Oracle Developer
An Oracle developer creates or maintains the database components of an Oracle application. They often develop new applications or convert existing applications to run in an Oracle Database environment. (Source)
The average annual income of an Oracle Developer in the United States is between $86,074 and $107,675, according to Salary.com, with an average of $97,941. (source)
Learn More: Feel free to read my full guide on this career role in this Finxter blog article.
PL/SQL Developer
A PL-/SQL Developer developer creates, edits, analyzes, debugs, and supervises the development of software written in the PL/SQL programming language.
PL/SQL is a procedural language built on top of SQL for programming Oracle databases. (Source)
The average annual income of a PL/SQL Developer is between $72,000 and $103,000 according to Glassdoor (source).
Learn More: Feel free to read my full guide on this career role in this Finxter blog article.
PostgreSQL Developer
PostgreSQL calls itself “The World’s Most Advanced Open Source Relational Database”.
A PostgreSQL database developer works on the PostgreSQL project whereas a PostgreSQL developer works with PostgreSQL on a third-party application. Most will take the second route, for which you need to know how to access the API. (Source)
Do you want to become a PostgreSQL developer? Here’s a learning path I’d propose in five steps to get started:
- Step 1: Introduction to Computer Science (~40 hours)
- Step 2: Introduction to Databases (~10 hours)
- Step 3: Introduction to SQL (~10 hours)
- Step 4: Introduction to PostgreSQL (~10 hours)
According to ZipRecruiter, the annual income of PostgreSQL developers is between $104,000 for the bottom 25th percentile, $133,000 for the 75th Percentile, and $171,500 for the top earners.
The monthly pay ranges from $8,666 to $14,291 with an average monthly income of $10,052.
Learn More: Feel free to read my full guide on this career role in this Finxter blog article.
RavenDB Developer
The average annual income of a RavenDB Developer is hard to estimate given the limited data availability. However, RavenDB developers are NoSQL developers who earn between $101,000 (25th percentile) and $130,500 (75th percentile) with an average of $119,105 per year in the US according to Ziprecruiter (source).
A RavenDB Developer developer creates, edits, analyzes, debugs, and supervises the development of software written in the RavenDB programming language. RavenDB is a NoSQL document-oriented database written especially for the .NET framework. (Source)
Learn More: Feel free to read my full guide on this career role in this Finxter blog article.
Redis Developer
Redis (Remote Dictionary Server) is a fast, open source, in-memory, key-value data store.
As a Redis developer, you will apply and develop Redis solutions for databases, caches, message brokers, and queues.
Other use cases are chat apps, gaming leaderboards, session stores, streaming apps, and handling geospatial data sources — to name just a few. (Source)
The average annual income of a Redis developer is $113,000 in the US according to PayScale (source).
Learn More: Feel free to read my full guide on this career role in this Finxter blog article.
SQL Developer
An SQL Developer creates, among other things, SQL code for database access. SQL is short for Structured Query Language that is designed to manage data stored in relational databases. (Source)
The average annual income of a SQL Developer in the US is $76,110 according to PayScale and $87,489 according to Indeed.com.
Learn More: Feel free to read my full guide on this career role in this Finxter blog article.
SQLite Developer
SQLite is the most used database engine in the world. SQLite implements a small, fast, self-contained, high-reliability, full-featured, SQL database engine.
SQLite developers help clients set up, maintain, and manage an SQLite database for their applications. (Source)
The average annual income of a SQLite Developer is between $49,000 and $107,000 with an average of $64,977 per year according to PayScale (source).
Learn More: Feel free to read my full guide on this career role in this Finxter blog article.
Summary
The most attractive, common, or interesting career paths as a database enthusiast are (top 18):
- Cassandra Developer
- Couchbase Developer
- Database Administrator
- Database Developer
- DynamoDB Developer
- IBM DB2 Developer
- MariaDB Developer
- Microsoft SQL Server Developer
- MongoDB Developer
- MS Access Developer
- MySQL Developer
- Oracle Developer
- PL-SQL Developer
- PostgreSQL Developer
- RavenDB Developer
- Redis Developer
- SQL Developer
- SQLite Developer
Feel free to check out our full career guide on the Finxter blog and the free Finxter email academy with never-ending free content!
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