What it pays
Government survey numbers — not estimates, not ads.
Half of all Computer Network Architects in the U.S. earn more than $134,050 a year — the middle 80% land between $79,900 and $202,680. About 179,740 people in the U.S. do this work. Figures are for the U.S. occupation group “Computer Network Architects”. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics survey, published 2025.) In India, Professionals earn about ₹38,298 a month on average — around ₹4.6 lakh a year (government PLFS survey via ILOSTAT, occupation-family figure).
$134,050typical pay / year
179,740people in this work
$202,680+top 10% earn
₹4.6 lakha year in India (family avg)
Think you get this job?Six quick questions on how it really works — with a hint and the reason behind every answer.
Test yourself →The work, task by task
These are the real jobs-to-be-done, not a wish list. Each task shows where we found it, and the prompt underneath is written for that exact task.
Analysing1
Evaluate network performance
+Run the five-minute synthetic tests across the core switches and edge links, compare latency and packet loss…
Evaluate network performance
+Run the five-minute synthetic tests across the core switches and edge links, compare latency and packet loss to last week's baseline, flag any exceeding thresholds and send the performance snapshot with recommendations to the network manager before shift handover.
The tools that do the workApache KafkaESCOjob descriptionsO*NET
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Protecting2
Implement security measures
+Apply the approved firewall ruleset and two-factor policy to the user VLANs, verify access by testing three…
Implement security measures
+Apply the approved firewall ruleset and two-factor policy to the user VLANs, verify access by testing three representative user roles, log configuration changes and notify the security officer with rollout notes and rollback steps.
The tools that do the workAmazon Web Services AWS CloudFormationjob descriptionsO*NET
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Maintain network infrastructure
+Replace the failed access switch at Terminal B, migrate connected ports to the spare, verify VLANs and PoE on…
Maintain network infrastructure
+Replace the failed access switch at Terminal B, migrate connected ports to the spare, verify VLANs and PoE on twenty endpoints, update the network diagram and inventory, and confirm phone and badge readers work before leaving site.
The tools that do the workApache Hadoopjob descriptionsO*NET
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Keeping the record1
Document network processes
+Write a clear, step-by-step network process document for the corporate LAN covering VLAN provisioning, switch…
Document network processes
+Write a clear, step-by-step network process document for the corporate LAN covering VLAN provisioning, switch and firewall change procedure, IP addressing conventions, backup schedule, and escalation contacts so a new technician can follow it without asking questions.
The tools that do the workAnsiblejob descriptionsO*NET
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The daily work16
Develop disaster recovery plans.
+Write a disaster recovery plan for our single-site office that restores email, file shares, and the customer…
Develop disaster recovery plans.
+Write a disaster recovery plan for our single-site office that restores email, file shares, and the customer ticketing system within four hours after a site outage, list required hardware, recovery steps, roles for Alan in network and Priya in ops, and a quarterly test schedule.
The tools that do the workAnsibleO*NET
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Develop conceptual, logical, or physical network designs.
+Draft a conceptual and logical network design for the new satellite office connecting 50 users to…
Develop conceptual, logical, or physical network designs.
+Draft a conceptual and logical network design for the new satellite office connecting 50 users to headquarters over an encrypted link, include VLAN layout, IP addressing, failover path, and compliance checks for the security policy that Richard must approve.
The tools that do the workApache KafkaO*NET
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Adjust network sizes to meet volume or capacity demands.
+Create a capacity plan that scales our user-facing systems from 200 to 2,000 concurrent users, specify where…
Adjust network sizes to meet volume or capacity demands.
+Create a capacity plan that scales our user-facing systems from 200 to 2,000 concurrent users, specify where to add servers, load balancing rules, threshold alerts, and a one-month phased rollout with rollback steps for heavy load weekends.
The tools that do the workAmazon Elastic Compute Cloud EC2O*NET
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Communicate with customers, sales staff, or marketing staff to determine customer needs.
+Prepare a customer-needs brief based on conversations with sales lead Maria and account manager Jon that maps…
Communicate with customers, sales staff, or marketing staff to determine customer needs.
+Prepare a customer-needs brief based on conversations with sales lead Maria and account manager Jon that maps three common support requests to feature requests, prioritise them by business impact, and recommend messaging for marketing to use next quarter.
The tools that do the workAJAXO*NET
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Estimate time and materials needed to complete projects.
+Produce a time-and-materials estimate for the office LAN upgrade: itemise labour hours by task, parts with…
Estimate time and materials needed to complete projects.
+Produce a time-and-materials estimate for the office LAN upgrade: itemise labour hours by task, parts with unit cost, licensing fees, a two-week schedule, and a contingency of 15 percent for unexpected hardware issues so procurement can approve.
The tools that do the workApache HadoopO*NET
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Prepare design presentations and proposals for staff or customers.
+Assemble a ten-slide proposal for IT leadership that shows the proposed Wi‑Fi redesign, benefits to staff…
Prepare design presentations and proposals for staff or customers.
+Assemble a ten-slide proposal for IT leadership that shows the proposed Wi‑Fi redesign, benefits to staff productivity, cost breakdown, migration risks, and a pilot plan for the Brighton office to start next Monday, ready for Paula to present.
The tools that do the workAmazon Web Services AWS CloudFormationO*NET
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Explain design specifications to integration or test engineers.
+Explain the new single-sign-on design to the integration and test engineers, walking through the…
Explain design specifications to integration or test engineers.
+Explain the new single-sign-on design to the integration and test engineers, walking through the authentication flow, token lifetime, error cases, and the exact API payloads they must expect so they can map their test cases and integration stubs by Wednesday.
The tools that do the workAnsibleO*NET
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Develop or maintain project reporting systems.
+Build and hand over a weekly project reporting feed that aggregates ticket volumes, SLA breaches, and change…
Develop or maintain project reporting systems.
+Build and hand over a weekly project reporting feed that aggregates ticket volumes, SLA breaches, and change requests into a single dashboard dataset and document the field mappings so the project manager can review numbers every Monday morning.
The tools that do the workAmazon RedshiftO*NET
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Visit vendors, attend conferences or training sessions, or study technical journals to keep up with changes in technology.
+Attend the vendor security briefing and the two-day network automation workshop, summarise the three…
Visit vendors, attend conferences or training sessions, or study technical journals to keep up with changes in technology.
+Attend the vendor security briefing and the two-day network automation workshop, summarise the three actionable changes to our incident runbooks and procurement list, and circulate a one-page study note to the team by Friday.
The tools that do the workApache KafkaO*NET
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Deploy planned networks
+Deploy the planned office network segment for Finance this weekend: provision the VLANs, apply the access…
Deploy planned networks
+Deploy the planned office network segment for Finance this weekend: provision the VLANs, apply the access control lists from the design, push the configuration to the switches, and confirm device inventory and baseline settings before Monday morning.
The tools that do the workAmazon Elastic Compute Cloud EC2job descriptions
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Test network implementations
+Execute the acceptance tests on the new campus network: run the connectivity, throughput, failover and ACL…
Test network implementations
+Execute the acceptance tests on the new campus network: run the connectivity, throughput, failover and ACL validation scripts, capture packet traces for two failed flows, and produce a pass/fail summary for the change board by 3pm Friday.
The tools that do the workApache Hadoopjob descriptions
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Recommend system upgrades
+Survey the current desktop and server estate, list end-of-life hardware and performance bottlenecks, cost a…
Recommend system upgrades
+Survey the current desktop and server estate, list end-of-life hardware and performance bottlenecks, cost a staged upgrade for 12 months with business impact notes, and recommend the priority list to the CIO next Tuesday.
The tools that do the workAmazon Web Services AWSjob descriptions
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Integrate new technologies
+Integrate the new single-sign-on appliance and the remote access VPN into our corporate network, test…
Integrate new technologies
+Integrate the new single-sign-on appliance and the remote access VPN into our corporate network, test authentication flows for Finance and HR, update the technical runbook, and schedule a live cutover for Thursday morning after confirming backups.
The tools that do the workAnsiblejob descriptions
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Monitor network performance
+Monitor the core switch fabric and edge throughput for the London office over the next 48 hours, flag any…
Monitor network performance
+Monitor the core switch fabric and edge throughput for the London office over the next 48 hours, flag any sustained packet loss above 0.5% or jitter above 30ms, notify the network owner and open a ticket if thresholds are breached.
The tools that do the workApache Kafkajob descriptions
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Develop creative ideas
+Run a two-hour ideation session with service desk leads to generate ten practical automation ideas that…
Develop creative ideas
+Run a two-hour ideation session with service desk leads to generate ten practical automation ideas that reduce repetitive tickets, document the top three with expected time savings and a pilot plan, and circulate to operations by Friday.
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Business process modelling
+Map the incident-to-resolution workflow for laptop replacement, include approval steps for Procurement and…
Business process modelling
+Map the incident-to-resolution workflow for laptop replacement, include approval steps for Procurement and Finance, identify decision gates that add delay, and produce a one-page process diagram and change recommendation for the ITSM board next Tuesday.
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Says who?
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Built on public evidence: O*NET®, ESCO, Wikipedia, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, ILOSTAT. All sources & licenses