How To Become An Application Administrator: What It Is and Career Path

What is an application administrator and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Bill McGinley

Application administrators ensure the proper functioning of applications used by an organization. They respond to requests received by the help desk on time while preparing servers and installing and configuring software. They also perform root cause analysis for issue resolution and prevention, earning a median sum of $94,000 annually or $45 per hour.

Application administrators are professionals in the IT department who are not developers, nor are they users. Instead, they are critical to keeping the applications in an organization running. They coordinate with development teams to identify needs and work with network engineers, system administrators to design application server environments. Application administrators are required to possess sound customer service and problem-solving skills.

Application administrators mostly hold a bachelor's degree in business, computer science, information technology, or other related fields. They are required to be absolute experts in application and programming creation as well as garnering experience in a similar role. Some candidates prefer to hire candidates with current knowledge of relevant technologies as assigned.

What general advice would you give to an application administrator?

Bill McGinley

President & CEO, American College of Health Care Administrators

LTC administrators should have at least a bachelor's degree in business or a healthcare-related field. A well-rounded internship that exposes the future administrator to all aspects of the operation is essential. Needed skills include business, marketing, finance, operations, management and leadership.
Post pandemic opportunities will be nationwide in this field with a greater need in rural areas.
Technology will continue to play a big role in the field. Computerized medical records, census management, and all clinical areas will continue to dominate. Online meetings are liable to continue as well, as employers realize that there is a savings to be gained by not having people travel to meetings and conferences.

ScoreApplication AdministratorUS Average

Salary

7.6

Avg. Salary $100,258

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.7

Growth rate 5%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.6

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.31%

Asian 12.83%

Black or African American 8.46%

Hispanic or Latino 12.16%

Unknown 5.05%

White 61.19%

Gender

female 32.03%

male 67.97%

Age - 42

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 42

Stress level

5.7

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.7

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.1

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an application administrator

Explore application administrator education requirements

Most common application administrator degrees

Bachelor's

65.4 %

Associate

16.7 %

Master's

12.8 %

Start to develop specific application administrator skills

Skills	Percentages
Troubleshoot	9.37%
Linux	5.47%
Technical Support	4.93%
Java	4.81%
SQL Server	4.42%

Complete relevant application administrator training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New application administrators learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an application administrator based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real application administrator resumes.

Research application administrator duties and responsibilities

Manage IIS folders and services.
Implement new back up systems for test and production, write UNIX shell scripts to automate and validate daily backups.
Manage databases and servers, tune queries, set up jobs, assist software engineers by integrating T-SQL with proprietary applications.
Manage various consultants providing Salesforce development services.

Prepare your application administrator resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your application administrator resume.

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