role

Network Administrator

Review Network Administrator role tasks, pay context, AI-impact notes, skill gaps, and cited evidence.

See my realistic path to Network Administrator

Certification details change. Always confirm final pricing, availability, and credential terms on the official provider page linked in the sources below before you pay for anything.

Shrinking occupation - projected -4.2% through 2034.

The call: Starting from scratch, the strongest-mapped entry credential for this role is CompTIA Network+ - the top of 3 mapped entry options. That ranking comes from RoleMath's cited role mapping, not a universal best - check the full certification decision table below before you commit.

BLS projects Network and computer systems administrators - the occupation this role maps to - to decline 4.2% from 2024 to 2034. The annual openings below reflect replacement needs rather than growth. O*NET profiles the work as primarily Conventional (structured, detail-heavy) and Realistic (hands-on, tools-and-systems). Weigh that against how you actually like to work.

What the numbers say about this work

Government occupation data for the role this maps to — Network and Computer Systems Administrators (SOC 15-1244). This is planning context for the occupation, not a salary or a job this role guarantees you.

Median pay (occupation): $99,130 / yr · $62,640 to $155,050 (10th–90th percentile)
Projected change (2024–34): -4.2% · ~14.3k openings/yr
Typical entry education: Bachelor's degree

BLS OEWS — occupation-level, national · checked 2026-06-25 BLS Employment Projections 2024–34 · checked 2026-06-25 This role has a high-confidence mapping to the listed O*NET-SOC/BLS occupation.

What it pays by metro

The national median hides a wide geographic spread. Below is the occupation’s median in some of the highest-paying and largest-employment metros, adjusted for local prices — regional price-level context, not take-home pay or a salary this role guarantees you.

Metro	Nominal median	Cost-adjusted
San Jose, CA	$133,360	$120,772
Baltimore, MD	$122,950	$117,670
Washington, DC	$125,430	$115,196
Durham, NC	$110,640	$113,393
San Francisco, CA	$129,680	$112,167
Columbus, OH	$105,750	$110,769

See all metros and how this is calculated → Sources: BLS OEWS (May 2025), occupation-level metro median ÷ BEA Regional Price Parities (2024, US=100).

What this work involves

The tasks the U.S. Department of Labor’s O*NET lists most central to this occupation — role-fit evidence to weigh against your background, not a measure of employer demand.

Maintain and administer computer networks and related computing environments, including computer hardware, systems software, applications software, and all configurations.
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.
Configure, monitor, and maintain email applications or virus protection software.
Operate master consoles to monitor the performance of computer systems and networks and to coordinate computer network access and use.
Monitor network performance to determine whether adjustments are needed and where changes will be needed in the future.

O*NET — occupation-level · checked 2026-07-14

Skills that matter

The skills O*NET rates most important for this occupation. A starting map for what to build — weigh it against the specific job you’re targeting.

Critical Thinking
Reading Comprehension
Active Listening
Monitoring
Speaking
Active Learning
Writing
Mathematics

O*NET — occupation-level · checked 2026-07-14

Certification decision support

Certifications mapped to Network Administrator

Certifications mapped to this role from cited OEM target-role data and the RoleMath role mapping, ordered by relationship strength and then Difficulty Score. This is planning context — not a guarantee, not an employer requirement, and not a claim that any one certification is best for everyone. Your fit depends on your background; pay/outlook context is occupation-level on the role page.

Start here signalCompTIA Network+Core stage - about 1-2 years recommended

Entry and starting signals

3 mapped

Credentials that map to this role as starting points or foundation signals.

Credential	Experience expected	Cost	Relationship	Why it appears here
CompTIA Network+CompTIA · foundation	Core stageabout 1-2 years recommended	$399 exam	strong signal	Network+ supports networking fundamentals for administrator routes.Official source
Cisco Certified Network AssociateCisco · associate	Core stageabout 1-2 years recommended	$300 exam	strong signal	CCNA is a stronger networking-role signal for network administration than general IT credentials.Official source
Cisco Certified Support Technician NetworkingCisco · entry	Entry stageno prior experience asked	$125 exam	pre entry foundation	CCST Networking is a Cisco entry networking credential and first step toward CCNA.Official source

Advanced or later-step credentials

2 mapped

Credentials that may matter after experience builds; they are not presented as first steps.

Credential	Experience expected	Cost	Relationship	Why it appears here
CompTIA Server+CompTIA · intermediate	Core stageabout 1-2 years recommended	$399 exam	adjacent	Server administration overlaps with network and infrastructure operations.Official source
CompTIA CloudNetXCompTIA · advanced	Expert stage5+ years required or expected	$544 exam	advanced adjacent	CloudNetX extends networking into hybrid cloud architecture.Official source

Adjacent, not primary

2 mapped

Useful only for a pivot or neighboring track; not primary evidence for this role.

Credential	Experience expected	Cost	Relationship	Why it appears here
CompTIA Linux+CompTIA · intermediate	Core stageabout 1-2 years recommended	$399 exam	adjacent	Linux administration can overlap with infrastructure operations roles.Official source
Cisco CCNA AutomationCisco · associate	Core stageabout 1-2 years recommended	$300 exam	automation specialization	CCNA Automation can help network administrators move toward API and infrastructure automation work.Official source

Experience expected is what the vendor publishes about the background it asks for or recommends — never a pass rate, and never a RoleMath rating of how hard an exam is. Certification mappings are planning context, not employer requirements, job guarantees, salary claims, or ROI claims.

Answer blocks

Common Questions

Will AI replace network administrators?

We won't give you a replacement percentage or timeline — we have no registered source that supports one. AI and automation change tasks in network administration (config, monitoring, scripting); that is task shift, not role deletion. BLS projects the related occupation to decline slightly through 2034, but does not model rapid AI, so it isn't an AI forecast.

Tier B (factual): BLS puts Network and computer systems administrators (SOC 15-1244) at a 2024–2034 projected change of −4.2% (from 331,500 jobs in 2024 to 317,700 in 2034), with ~14,300 annual openings a year — a forecast, not a guarantee; not an AI prediction. Note network certifications now include automation concepts (e.g., CCNA 200-301 exam topics), which is the role's tasks evolving, not vanishing. Tier A (research): an attributed occupation-exposure estimate would need published research indices not yet registered here; we decline to forecast.

Citations: U.S. BLS — Employment Projections 2024–2034, SOC 15-1244 (bls.gov); Cisco — CCNA 200-301 exam topics (cisco.com).

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Quick Verdict

Network Administrator maps to BLS/OEWS occupation context Network and Computer Systems Administrators (SOC 15-1244), which has a national median of $99,130. Pay is occupation-level and location-driven - not caused by the job title or a certification. Below are the full cited labor-market context, the skills the role draws on, and the certification paths that map to it. This role has a high-confidence mapping to the listed O*NET-SOC/BLS occupation.

Fit Signals

Conventional (6.18)
Realistic (4.19)
Investigative (4.04)

Skills & Tools

*Tools and technologies ONET associates with this occupation* - role-specific examples with ONET hot/in-demand flags, not employer requirements:

Amazon Web Services AWS software (hot technology, in demand)
Ansible software (hot technology, in demand)
Bash (hot technology, in demand)
Linux (hot technology, in demand)
Microsoft Active Directory (hot technology, in demand)
Microsoft Azure software (hot technology, in demand)
Microsoft Excel (hot technology, in demand)
Microsoft Office software (hot technology, in demand)

*Foundational ONET skills** (broadly shared across occupations, not unique to this role): Critical Thinking, Reading Comprehension, Active Listening, Monitoring, Speaking, Active Learning.

AI & this career

What we can — and can’t — tell you about AI and this role

Cited context only: an occupation-level outlook, descriptive usage data, an employer-language sample, and attributed research — kept separate. No RoleMath AI score, no automation timeline, no job-loss prediction. How we source this →

Occupation outlook · BLS

Where the occupation is projected to go

BLS projects Network and computer systems administrators at -4.2% employment change for 2024-2034, with 14.3 thousand annual openings. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · checked 2026-06-07

A forecast, not a guarantee; occupation-level, not about you - and BLS does not model rapid AI adoption, so this is never an AI prediction.

How AI shows up in the work

Descriptive usage, not demand or loss

For this O*NET detail, the May 2026 usage sample reports 31.90% of Claude conversations augmenting the person's work and 68.10% automating a task. Anthropic · checked 2026-06-30 Anthropic Economic Index dataset, CC-BY.

Across all occupations the same dataset splits 51.4% augmentation / 48.6% automation (May 2026) — shown so a single role’s number is never read as an outlier.

Descriptive Claude usage data, not employment demand, not job loss, and not a personal forecast; CC-BY attribution required.

Employer language · sample

What a posting sample mentions

a sample of 4 postings (as of 2026-07-09) mentions these AI-related terms

Employer-language sample only; not official demand, market-size, salary, or certification ROI evidence.

Published research · attributed

What independent research says (not RoleMath’s claim)

Eloundou et al. estimate that about 80% of U.S. workers have at least 10% of their work tasks exposed to large language model capabilities (Science 2024). American Association for the Advancement of Science · checked 2026-06-19 exposure = task overlap, not job loss.
Eloundou et al. estimate that about 19% of U.S. workers have at least 50% of their work tasks exposed to large language model capabilities (Science 2024). American Association for the Advancement of Science · checked 2026-06-19 exposure = task overlap, not job loss.
Eloundou et al. explicitly disclaim any forecast of AI adoption or timing, describing their measure as capability overlap with tasks rather than a prediction of job loss (Science 2024). American Association for the Advancement of Science · checked 2026-06-19 exposure = task overlap, not job loss.
OECD reports that high-skill occupations are the most exposed to AI on task-overlap measures (OECD Employment Outlook 2023). Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development · checked 2026-06-19 exposure = task overlap, not job loss.
OECD reports that, as of 2023, there is little empirical evidence of negative employment effects from AI (OECD Employment Outlook 2023). Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development · checked 2026-06-19 exposure = task overlap, not job loss.
OECD and the AIOE research find that AI exposure and automation risk often run in opposite directions, with the most-exposed high-skill occupations tending to be the least at risk of automation. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development · checked 2026-06-19 exposure = task overlap, not job loss.
Felten, Raj and Seamans construct an occupation-level AI Occupational Exposure index by linking AI capabilities to O*NET occupational abilities (Strategic Management Journal). Strategic Management Journal (Wiley) · checked 2026-06-19 exposure = task overlap, not job loss.
Stanford Digital Economy Lab researchers find a roughly 16% relative decline in employment for workers ages 22-25 in the most AI-exposed occupations, based on high-frequency ADP payroll data (Canaries in the Coal Mine, working paper). Stanford Digital Economy Lab · checked 2026-06-19 correlational usage data, not proof.
The ILO notes that AI-exposure indicators measure potential task overlap and cannot by themselves establish job loss (Workers' exposure to AI). International Labour Organization · checked 2026-06-19 exposure = task overlap, not job loss.
The Anthropic Economic Index reports no measured systematic rise in unemployment attributable to AI in its usage data. Anthropic · checked 2026-06-30 correlational usage data, not proof.

Tier A research stays attributed and separate from BLS outlook and employer-language samples.

Core source records

This table lists the page’s core content records and when they were checked. Claim-specific citations appear beside the relevant text and may not be repeated here.

ID	Supports	Source	Checked
CIT-01	Supports occupation-level wage context for Network Administrator.	Network Administrator BLS OEWS wage source	2026-06-25T08:28:38+00:00
CIT-02	Supports occupation-level outlook context for Network Administrator.	Network Administrator BLS Employment Projections source	2026-06-25T08:27:06+00:00
CIT-03	Supports skills, tasks, interests, and fit context for Network Administrator.	Network Administrator O*NET source	2026-07-14T04:32:12+00:00

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