What does a senior administrator do?
A senior administrator is responsible for managing the overall administrative duties in an organization, including coordinating with higher management to identify process and operations improvement and other business opportunities to grow revenues and increase profitability. Senior administrators monitor and delegate tasks to the administrative staff, resolve discrepancies on record-keeping, respond to the customers' inquiries and concerns, ensure the adequacy of inventory, and train new staff. They also inspect and update the database regularly for business information and customer details, as well as handling complaints or directing them to the appropriate personnel and department.
Senior administrator responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real senior administrator resumes:
- Organize and manage all meeting logistics for various conferences and events across the U.S.
- Lead and/or participate in adding departments to the DMS, client/server upgrades, DR testing, and end user testing.
- Have configured the SharePoint environment and continuously managing both intranet and internet sites used by end users, consumers and stakeholders.
- Manage calendar and arrange travel; coordinate meetings and events; create PowerPoint presentations; prepare correspondence and approve expense reports.
- Provide remote user support via Citrix remote desktop and Cisco VPN.
- Create, maintain and provide issue resolution of complex Linux and Unix scripts.
- Configure and enable DNS services in Infoblox.
- Create SQL statements for repairing corrupt Oracle10g databases.
- Input Medicare, track payments and post in ledger.
- Re-Create DogNet's custom Linux distribution that is used for cloning lab systems.
- Implement innovative approach to improve the reception of Medicare patients into the facility.
- Plan and deploy network infrastructure including routers, switches, SAN and security appliances.
- Create file stores and custom types and allocates storage capacity for SAN and NAS.
- Coordinate with the neighboring teams and analyze the data that is flowing to LDAP.
- Identify problematic SQL and work with developers, analysts and DBA's to resolve.
Senior administrator skills and personality traits
We calculated that 10% of Senior Administrators are proficient in Customer Service, SR, and Troubleshoot. They’re also known for soft skills such as Multitasking skills, Analytical skills, and Communication skills.
We break down the percentage of Senior Administrators that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Customer Service, 10%
Promoted from Senior Customer Service Representative, responsible for reviewing, resolving and expediting customer service complaints and service issues.
- SR, 10%
Managed daily administration for approximately 15 people reporting to Vice President including Sr. Directors and Brand Managers.
- Troubleshoot, 7%
Documented complete server architecture and solutions to troubleshoot performance, scheduling and server related issues.
- Linux, 5%
Support of Disaster Recovery including * Validation of production Oracle application and Linux servers * Business continuity testing
- Data Entry, 4%
Supervised four-member Fulfillment department handling data entry, literature distribution, and corporation's customer loyalty program.
- HR, 3%
Communicate regularly with HR Businesses nation-wide to present wellness initiatives and gather feedback.
Common skills that a senior administrator uses to do their job include "customer service," "sr," and "troubleshoot." You can find details on the most important senior administrator responsibilities below.
Multitasking skills. The most essential soft skill for a senior administrator to carry out their responsibilities is multitasking skills. This skill is important for the role because "administrators may have to work on many problems and tasks at the same time." Additionally, a senior administrator resume shows how their duties depend on multitasking skills: "leverage strong multitasking skills to manage customer service, data entry, invoicing, inventory control, and purchasing. "
Analytical skills. Another essential skill to perform senior administrator duties is analytical skills. Senior administrators responsibilities require that "administrators need to evaluate networks and systems to make sure that they perform reliably and to anticipate new requirements as customers’ needs change." Senior administrators also use analytical skills in their role according to a real resume snippet: "configured websphere resources like jdbc providers, jdbc data sources, connection pooling, and java mail sessions. "
Communication skills. This is an important skill for senior administrators to perform their duties. For an example of how senior administrator responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "administrators must describe problems and their solutions to non-it workers." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a senior administrator: "managed fy15 global communications for all facets of hr to provide message continuity and consistency. ".
Problem-solving skills. For certain senior administrator responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "problem-solving skills." The day-to-day duties of a senior administrator rely on this skill, as "administrators must quickly resolve problems that arise with computer networks." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what senior administrators do: "performed standard post-installation configuration for abap and java systems, and configuration of systems in solution manager and sld. "
The three companies that hire the most senior administrators are:
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Compare different senior administrators
Senior administrator vs. Lead database administrator
A lead database administrator or DBA serves as a primary technologist in an organization or company. Lead database administrators are technical experts in terms of database and middleware technology design, tuning, configuration, troubleshooting, and building. They use specialized software for data storage and organization. Their role may also include database migration, troubleshooting, performance monitoring, and data recovery. Among the necessary skills for this job include problem-solving, organizational, interpersonal, and communication.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, senior administrator responsibilities require skills like "customer service," "sr," "troubleshoot," and "data entry." Meanwhile a typical lead database administrator has skills in areas such as "database administration," "microsoft sql server," "disaster recovery," and "recovery procedures." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
Lead database administrators tend to reach higher levels of education than senior administrators. In fact, lead database administrators are 8.0% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.4% more likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Senior administrator vs. Windows system administrator
A Windows System Administrator maintains the systems and servers of a Windows operating system. They evaluate and modify the system's performance.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real senior administrator resumes. While senior administrator responsibilities can utilize skills like "customer service," "sr," "data entry," and "hr," windows system administrators use skills like "infrastructure," "powershell," "sccm," and "os."
Average education levels between the two professions vary. Windows system administrators tend to reach similar levels of education than senior administrators. In fact, they're 4.6% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.4% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for senior administrators in the next 3-5 years?
Dr. Richard Huff Ph.D.
Assistant professor, assistant chair, Virginia Commonwealth University
As custodians of sensitive data, in many cases, there is a demand for a high level of trustworthiness to be earned by public officials. I would expect agencies will need to set a high bar for ethical standards and communicate them consistently. This will be particularly true for developing and using artificial intelligence (AI). While the future public servant will need a grounding in understanding, interpreting, and using data in meaningful ways, there will continue to be a critical need for ethical sensitivity and reasoning to ensure public policies and programs heed increasing demands for social equity and justice. Technology advancements are unavoidable for the foreseeable future and need to be harnessed and applied appropriately by professional, principled, and ethical public servants.
Senior administrator vs. Systems administrator lead
A systems administrator lead is responsible for planning, designing, and implementing procedures for critical enterprise systems. Typical duties of systems administrators include managing the day-to-day operations of a company's computer and network systems, developing new application and system implementation plans, and establishing guidelines for installing and managing the organization's computer operating systems. In addition, you are expected to ensure the security of computer systems by preventing unauthorized use, user abuse, and acts of nature.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, senior administrators are more likely to have skills like "customer service," "sr," "troubleshoot," and "data entry." But a systems administrator lead is more likely to have skills like "project management," "system performance," "database," and "pc."
When it comes to education, systems administrator leads tend to earn similar degree levels compared to senior administrators. In fact, they're 3.8% less likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.2% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Senior administrator vs. Senior oracle database administrator
A senior Oracle Database administrator is responsible for designing network systems and improve existing databases and software programs for optimal performance. Senior Oracle Database administrators maintain the safety and security of the computer systems and application to prevent unauthorized access and activities by upgrading network infrastructures. They also perform multiple diagnostic tests on the system to ensure stability and smooth navigations and assist the end-users on troubleshooting issues. A senior Oracle Database administrator must have excellent knowledge of the technology industry, as well as operating communication systems, programming languages, and system codes.
Types of senior administrator
Updated January 8, 2025
