Data Management Specialist Salary: Your 2025 Guide

Data can hold great value and insights for firms. With their analytical skills and proficiency in varied programming languages, data management specialists assess information and derive meaningful inferences from firms’ data. Additionally, they help establish the structure and workflow for data management procedures, including metadata management, data cataloging, and information life cycle management.

Discover more about data management specialists' work duties and salary prospects to explore this career path and assess if it’s the direction you’d like to take.

What is a data management specialist?

Data management specialists have the skills to analyze and identify patterns within a data set as they contribute to collecting, storing, and analyzing a business’s data. Ascertaining the most effective methods for gathering information is one of the key strengths of a data management specialist. Other everyday work duties you can expect when working in this role include:

• Critiquing big data to uncover constraints in reliability 

• Implementing sampling techniques to determine the optimal categories for data collection

• Assisting teams with accurate interpretation of collected data

• Design enterprise database strategies

Did you know? According to a 2023 survey from Statista, roughly 88 percent of companies worldwide said investments in data and analytics are a top priority. About 82 percent also say their organization is increasing their investment in data and analytics [1]. 

How much does a data management specialist make?

According to multiple job listing sites, the average annual income for a data management specialist in the United States ranges from $68,809 to $78,699. The following table lists the base salary ranges provided by various sources.

What factors impact a data management specialist's salary?

Multiple factors can influence a data management specialist's job prospects, including educational background, certifications, work history, industry, and geographical location. Below, examine each of these factors in more detail.

Education

According to Zippia, data management specialists earn an average yearly salary of $73,062 with a bachelor's degree, $87,700 with a master's degree, and approximately $111,599 with a doctorate [6].

The majority of data management specialists, around 62 percent, hold a bachelor's degree, while 17 percent possess an associate degree, and 11 percent have a master's degree. Additionally, 31 percent of data management specialists major in business, making it the preferred course of study [6]. Computer science and computer information systems are popular fields of study favored by people in this career field.

Certification

Certifications can help you demonstrate proficiency in various aspects of data management, including data governance, data quality, and data integration. The following represents some industry-recognized certifications, as well as their respective salaries, that can boost your skill set as a data management specialist:

• Certified Data Management Professional (CDMP): $112,000 [7]

• Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA): $118,000 [8]

• SAP Certified Application Associate - SAP Master Data Governance: $100,000  [9]

Experience

Your experience can increase earning potential by building a track record of successful projects and outcomes. The figures below provide an approximate overview of average compensation at various experience levels for data management specialists, according to Glassdoor [2]:

• 0–1 year: $57,121

• 1–3 years: $61,139

• 4–6 years: $65,296

• 7–9 years: 68,125

• 10–14 years: $73,316

• 15 or more years: $81,194

Location

Your income can vary considerably depending on your geographical location as well. Areas with a higher cost of living, such as major cities or regions with high housing demand, typically offer higher salaries.

Highest-paying cities for data management specialists

Some of the top-paying cities for data management specialists in the United States, according to data aggregated by Zippia, include [4]:

• Rockville, MD: $105,683

• Eureka, CA: $95,368

• Jersey City, NJ: $93,191

• New York, NY: $92,445

• Washington, DC: $90,394

Industry

Data management specialists are essential across industries to ensure data accuracy, compliance, and operational efficiency. For instance, data engineers help health care facilities adhere to medical and health data regulations, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). 

Highest-paying industries for data management specialists 

The list below highlights top industries that offer lucrative salaries for data management specialists in the United States, based on data from Zippia [4]: 

• Pharmaceutical: $101,442

• Insurance: $100,432

• Finance: $99,127

• Manufacturing: $91,924

• Technology: $75,938

• Transportation: $70,864

• Professional: $68,469

• Government: $68,140

• Health care: $62,947

With the increasing emphasis on data security, data management specialists in all industries ensure compliance with data protection regulations to safeguard sensitive information from unauthorized access. 

For instance, in the HR industry, data management specialists support talent acquisition, retention, and development initiatives by managing applicant data and employee performance records. They provide HR teams with accurate and accessible data for effective talent management strategies.

Related job titles

Data management is a broad field with various opportunities. If the role of data management specialist sounds like your thing, the following job titles may pique your interest:

Data engineer

Average annual base US salary: $106,457 [10]

As a data engineer, your primary task involves restructuring data into a format that end users can readily analyze and interpret. You may also assist firms in devising and maintaining data generation infrastructures.

Data architect

Average annual base US salary: $141,237 [11]

As a data architect, you will develop and maintain electronic databases to store vast volumes of firms’ internal and external data. Additionally, you may facilitate troubleshooting and help pinpoint errors in databases. 

Data management analyst

Average annual base US salary: $85,857 [12]

In your role as a data management analyst, you will work with an organization’s internal team to 

identify optimal methods for collecting source information. Furthermore, using mathematical and statistical techniques, you will derive insights from the data.

Job outlook 

Data management specialists and their related positions fall under the umbrella of data scientists, a profession with a promising outlook. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics foretells a 36 percent increase in job openings for data scientists from 2023 to 2033 [13]. The projection corresponds to, on average, 20,800 job openings annually [13]. 

Getting started with Coursera

Data management specialists have higher-than-average salary prospects and excellent job outlooks. Your salary varies depending on several factors, including your experience, education, location, and industry. 

Strengthen your skills in data science with the Introduction to Data Science Specialization available on Coursera. This beginner-friendly course, offered by IBM, aims to orient you with popular data science tools, including R Studio, JupyterLab, GitHub, and Watson Studio.