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Data specialist vs data administrator

The differences between data specialists and data administrators can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 1-2 years to become a data specialist, becoming a data administrator takes usually requires 2-4 years. Additionally, a data administrator has an average salary of $80,072, which is higher than the $68,326 average annual salary of a data specialist.

The top three skills for a data specialist include data analysis, data entry and data collection. The most important skills for a data administrator are data management, java, and profiling.

Data specialist vs data administrator overview

Data SpecialistData Administrator
Yearly salary$68,326$80,072
Hourly rate$32.85$38.50
Growth rate9%9%
Number of jobs100,301124,537
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 56%Bachelor's Degree, 58%
Average age4446
Years of experience24

What does a data specialist do?

A data specialist's role is to process data, transferring them into an electronic platform or database for record-keeping or creating systems. Their primary responsibility is to ensure the accuracy of every inputted data point and verify its authenticity by reaching out to clients or using specific software. There are also instances when they must perform various analyses or take part in different product development processes. Furthermore, it is crucial to be able to identify any anomalies or inconsistencies; this way, corrective measures can be quickly implemented.

What does a data administrator do?

As a data administrator, they support the marketing, sales, finance, and operations departments by providing accurate, complete, and current data to the customer, product, inventory, and vendor. It is the data administrator's responsibility to implement and execute data mining projects and makes reports to provide understanding into sales, marketing, and purchasing opportunities and business trends. The role would also include updating information to the company's database and official company website. Moreover, they also do reports about data analysis, forecasting, and other research activities that lead to decision making.

Data specialist vs data administrator salary

Data specialists and data administrators have different pay scales, as shown below.

Data SpecialistData Administrator
Average salary$68,326$80,072
Salary rangeBetween $40,000 And $116,000Between $53,000 And $119,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CARichmond, CA
Highest paying stateConnecticutLouisiana
Best paying companyMcKinsey & Company IncSouthern California Edison
Best paying industryManufacturingFinance

Differences between data specialist and data administrator education

There are a few differences between a data specialist and a data administrator in terms of educational background:

Data SpecialistData Administrator
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 56%Bachelor's Degree, 58%
Most common majorBusinessBusiness
Most common college-Stanford University

Data specialist vs data administrator demographics

Here are the differences between data specialists' and data administrators' demographics:

Data SpecialistData Administrator
Average age4446
Gender ratioMale, 40.6% Female, 59.4%Male, 41.9% Female, 58.1%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 9.6% Unknown, 4.3% Hispanic or Latino, 19.5% Asian, 9.9% White, 56.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6%Black or African American, 8.0% Unknown, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino, 9.2% Asian, 17.7% White, 59.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5%
LGBT Percentage5%6%

Differences between data specialist and data administrator duties and responsibilities

Data specialist example responsibilities.

  • Manage the FAA's classify operations program.
  • Manage and prepare pharmaceutical records for multiple FDA audits.
  • Create UNIX and LINUX shell scripts to automate data migration process.
  • Create packages in SSIS to automate importing text files into a data mart.
  • Participate in data profiling activities and lead root cause / impact analysis sessions.
  • Manage offshore developers to support DBA operations.
    • Show more

Data administrator example responsibilities.

  • Manage the LDAP requests for user provision.
  • Manage replication & distribution servers, versioning dev & production servers.
  • Design and lead team efforts to reduce batch windows through application on new features.
  • Manage access to file shares, DFS shares, IIS servers and terminal services.
  • Integrate LDAP and setup security at multiple levels to achieve data security and object level security.
  • Install and set up the VMWare environment, managing the closing/building and allocation of all virtual servers.
    • Show more

Data specialist vs data administrator skills

Common data specialist skills
  • Data Analysis, 7%
  • Data Entry, 7%
  • Data Collection, 7%
  • Customer Service, 7%
  • Data Management, 6%
  • Visualization, 6%
Common data administrator skills
  • Data Management, 12%
  • Java, 11%
  • Profiling, 10%
  • DB2, 7%
  • Unix, 7%
  • Sybase, 6%

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Updated January 8, 2025

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