How To Become A Disaster Recovery Specialist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a disaster recovery specialist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Disaster recovery specialists are responsible for developing and implementing plans to minimize or eliminate losses during a man-made or natural disaster. To do this, they conduct extensive research, analyze current disaster prevention programs in place, and coordinate with technology departments within their organization.

Moreover, disaster recovery specialists are in charge of developing procedures to optimize the security of the organization's data, information systems, and technology. They usually get into the nitty-gritty details and spend a lot of time researching, analyzing, and perfecting disaster recovery strategies.

The basic requirement for this role is a degree in business, computer science, or a similar field. Most people in this position have bachelor's degrees, but it is possible to attain this role with an associate's degree. Furthermore, a disaster recovery specialist must have substantial experience in their industry, particularly in disaster recovery or IT management.

Disaster recovery specialists earn an average of $55,000 per year or about $26 per hour. They typically work in offices and with close proximity to their organization's technology department.

ScoreDisaster Recovery SpecialistUS Average

Salary

5.0

Avg. Salary $64,394

Avg. Salary $59,228

Diversity

4.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.43%

Asian 8.83%

Black or African American 6.36%

Hispanic or Latino 9.39%

Unknown 4.56%

White 70.43%

Gender

female 35.14%

male 64.86%

Age - 43

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 - 43

Stress level

7.2

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.4

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.7

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a disaster recovery specialist

Explore disaster recovery specialist education requirements

Most common disaster recovery specialist degrees

Bachelor's

57.7 %

Associate

16.0 %

Master's

11.1 %

Start to develop specific disaster recovery specialist skills

Skills	Percentages
Grants Management	22.10%
Infrastructure	9.04%
Business Continuity	6.93%
Project Management	5.39%
Technical Assistance	4.77%

Complete relevant disaster recovery specialist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New disaster recovery specialists 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 a disaster recovery specialist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real disaster recovery specialist resumes.

Research disaster recovery specialist duties and responsibilities

Manage plan and design of backup data center infrastructure build-out and participate in business continuation/disaster recovery planning.
Manage coordination, implementation and installation of next generation telemarketing system, an nt-base, client server environment.
Perform impact analysis and enterprise-wide mapping of critical functions and infrastructure identifying points of failure and potential business disruption.
Test data, server, and mainframe restoration and point-in-time recovery capabilities.

Prepare your disaster recovery specialist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your disaster recovery specialist resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a disaster recovery specialist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable disaster recovery specialist resume templates

Build a professional disaster recovery specialist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your disaster recovery specialist resume.