How To Become A Migration Engineer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a migration engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Dr. Ariful Azad Ph.D.

In data management, migration engineers are the ones responsible for developing migration strategies and techniques to ensure the optimal transfer of data from one place to another.

Their typical job responsibilities encompass troubleshooting migration issues, executing set-ups of physical workstations, managing the migration tracking system, and developing migration and integration SQL code for client implementation and upgrades. They work closely with the information technology developing migration and integration SQL code for client implementation and upgrades. In terms of work environment, they typically spend most of their time in front of computers, as one would expect.

If you wish to become a migration engineer, the best degree to accomplish is one in computer science, information technology, or computer networking. Aside from that, you must also gain enough experience in data migration to increase your chances of job placement.

The job of a migration engineer is a highly technical one, often requiring lots of education and experience. That said, migration engineers earn an average of $83,000 per year, which can go up to $105,000 or more.

What general advice would you give to a migration engineer?

Dr. Ariful Azad Ph.D.

Director of Graduate Studies for the Dept. of Intelligent Systems Engineering, Assistant Professor of Intelligent Systems Engineering, Indiana University Bloomington

Look for a job that you would enjoy doing, even if it takes some time to find such a position. Internships are great to explore various options.

ScoreMigration EngineerUS Average

Salary

7.6

Avg. Salary $100,922

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 13.84%

Black or African American 7.95%

Hispanic or Latino 11.66%

Unknown 5.00%

White 61.23%

Gender

female 8.72%

male 91.28%

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 a migration engineer

Explore migration engineer education requirements

Most common migration engineer degrees

Bachelor's

55.4 %

Associate

27.9 %

Master's

8.0 %

Start to develop specific migration engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
Java	10.45%
Azure	8.98%
PowerShell	8.16%
SharePoint	5.98%
Linux	5.45%

Complete relevant migration engineer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New migration engineers 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 migration engineer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real migration engineer resumes.

Research migration engineer duties and responsibilities

Perform network testing, replace hubs with Cisco switches, and manage cabling contractors.
Achieve VDI system high availability, eliminating single-points of failure to the VDI environment for internal and external VDI connectivity.
Extract Java MSI's for use in SCCM to avoid bloat ware and taskbar installations.
Position require troubleshooting PC networking issues involving LAN connectivity, TCP/IP, DNS, etc.

Prepare your migration engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your migration engineer 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 migration engineer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable migration engineer resume templates

Build a professional migration engineer 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 migration engineer resume.