Career profile · SOC 11-3021

Computer and Information Systems Managers

Plan, direct, or coordinate activities in such fields as electronic data processing, information systems, systems analysis, and computer programming.

Median salary
$171,200
per year
Growth outlook
Much Faster Than Average
BLS 10-yr
Education
Bachelor's degree
AI exposure
6.5/10
automation risk

Salary distribution (US)

Real salary data from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The p10–p90 spread tells you more than the median alone.

Bottom 10%
$99,710
25th %ile
$128,640
Median
$171,200
75th %ile
$214,000
Top 10%
$239,200

Top skills

Critical Thinking Active Listening Complex Problem Solving Coordination Judgment and Decision Making Speaking Reading Comprehension Management of Personnel Resources Monitoring Systems Analysis

Knowledge you'll build

  • Computers and Electronics
  • Administration and Management
  • English Language
  • Customer and Personal Service
  • Engineering and Technology
  • Personnel and Human Resources
  • Mathematics
  • Telecommunications

A day in the life

You start early with a scan of system-health dashboards and incident reports before diving into a packed calendar of one-on-ones with engineering leads, budget reviews with finance, and roadmap planning sessions with product teams. Your role straddles strategy and execution: one hour you are presenting a cloud-migration business case to the CTO, the next you are unblocking a team stuck on a vendor contract negotiation or mediating a priority conflict between two project managers. You spend time reviewing hiring pipelines, mentoring senior engineers on leadership skills, and ensuring security and compliance standards are met across all technology initiatives. The job is rewarding when your teams deliver on time and your technology vision aligns with business growth, but the constant juggling of people problems, technical debt, and executive expectations makes for long, demanding days.

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