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

What is a senior database engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Christian Hansen Ph.D.

Senior database engineers work in companies that require keeping track of large data sets. The position of a senior database engineer offers a competitive salary and opportunity for meaningful growth. In general, senior database engineers take part in the design, development, and maintenance of database solutions. Helpful skills in this position include; Expert-level knowledge of database architectures, ability to optimize queries and troubleshoot errors, Software development, Microsoft development tools and, experience working with large databases.

The standard level of education required for this position is a bachelor's degree in computer science, applied mathematics, or engineering. A master's degree is most preferred. However, working experience is acceptable as an equivalent of the educational requirement. The roles of a senior database engineer include analyzing database management systems and providing optimized solutions, developing data archive procedures that reduce space usage, therefore, enhancing performance, producing error handling strategies to improve troubleshooting and performance monitoring, analyzing and troubleshooting problems using data analysis and managing database administration and automation.

What's a day at work look like for a senior database engineer?

Christian Hansen Ph.D.

Professor and Department Chair, Eastern Washington University

In the post-pandemic era, a typical workday for a recent graduate will likely involve some form of remote work. I predict that many businesses will benefit from the reduced cost of remote infrastructure compared to the cost of maintaining brick and mortar office space. Many new graduates will continue to spend their day on a computer while collaborating in teams via Zoom and other teleconference tools. People working in disciplines that have traditionally been "on the ground" will move towards more hybrid modes of work, reducing the need for travel and participating in face-to-face meetings and training.

ScoreSenior Database EngineerUS Average

Salary

8.2

Avg. Salary $123,540

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.4

Growth rate 9%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.54%

Asian 23.42%

Black or African American 7.43%

Hispanic or Latino 8.85%

Unknown 5.15%

White 54.62%

Gender

female 14.37%

male 85.63%

Age - 46

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 - 46

Stress level

4.4

Stress level is moderate

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.2

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

8.1

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a senior database engineer

Explore senior database engineer education requirements

Most common senior database engineer degrees

Bachelor's

63.1 %

Master's

25.0 %

Associate

7.0 %

Start to develop specific senior database engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
AWS	5.52%
Java	5.03%
ETL	4.76%
Linux	4.75%
Database Design	4.56%

Complete relevant senior database engineer training and internships

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

Research senior database engineer duties and responsibilities

Lead multiple infrastructure planning and implementation including instance strategy, technical platform selection, architecture design, backup and recovery strategy.
Develop scripts in PL/SQL, UNIX shell scripts to facilitate database management.
Design and code PL/SQL packages to extract data from CDW/CDM repository and update database objects.
Develop many Java script functions for database administration.

Get senior database engineer experience

Generally, it takes 2-4 years to become a senior database engineer. The most common roles before becoming a senior database engineer include senior database administrator, database administrator team lead and senior oracle database administrator.

Prepare your senior database engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your senior database 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 senior database 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 senior database engineer resume templates

Build a professional senior database 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 senior database engineer resume.