Database Administrator Job Description

Administration jobs in any field are aimed at supervising and managing business to make sure it is running smoothly. A database administrator (DBA) manages the database of the company. He uses his programming and administration skills in overseeing the security issues and performance of the database. Integrating different modules of the database that are developed by the database developer and making sure that each module is working properly in integration is also the responsibility of the database administrator. To make you more familiar with the responsibilities of a database administrator, we have tried to provide you the database administrator job description and the requirements of this position.

There are some bigger organizations that require many database administrators to administer the data. In such organizations a hierarchy is followed that includes many database administers who work as a team and maintain the database of the organization. Given below is the hierarchy of the database administrators.

Level 1: Data Analysts or Query designers
Level 2: Junior DBAs
Level 3: Midlevel DBAs
Level 4: Senior DBAs
Level 5: DBA consultants
Level 6: Manager or Director of DBA

Academic Requirements for a Database Administrator

A database administrator needs to have a degree in Computer Science. Graduate degree in Computer Science or Information Technology or master's degree in Computer Science or Information Technology is essential. There are various certification programs like OC Certification (Oracle Certification Program) and MCDBA (Microsoft Certified Database Administrator) available for people who what to specialize in database technologies.

Competencies Required for Database Administrator

Database administrators should have profound knowledge of database query languages like Oracle, PL SQL, SQL Server, and MS Access. They should also have expertise in RDBMS (Relational Database Management Systems). Apart from these database languages having capability to work on various operating systems and some other programming languages is also essential for the database administrators.

Job Responsibilities of a Database Administrator

Database administrators control and assign privileges so that each end user is able to access only the authorized part of the database. He provides authentication and authorization to the end users and establishes security of the database
He is involved in planning the storage capacity for the database while working with the IT or software development department of the company so that enough storage is available to store the data
Tackling all the technical issues that arise at the front-end as well as at the back-end of the systems
Writing database documentation for future reference and upgrading them continuously and maintaining them
Integrating modules of the developed database software as per the requirements of the end-users is also responsibility of a database administrator
They also provide design specifications to the development team so that they get the database designed according to the requirements of the clients
They also work to troubleshoot the problems and mentor the end-users in using the systems
Database administrators also manage metadata and have complete access to the metadata
Administrators are the privileged users of the database who have access to all the data stored within the database so they should handle the database issues effectively
If a database administrator is working as at a higher level of hierarchy then he/she also has the responsibility of training and assisting his team members

Data security is vital in any business, especially in banking sectors, stock broking and any money related transactions. Database administrators play important role in preventing data leakage and data hacking in such cases. The database administrator job description is just to give you a brief idea. However, the responsibilities may vary depending upon the size and structure of the organization.