It’s the time Oracle DBA specialists rejoice, as the job scenario for them looks very exciting and very durable across the world. The growing demand for Oracle’s suite of software has heated up the already booming jobs market for DBA specialists.

In the U.S., the biggest market for DBA specialists, the demand has outstripped supply, primarily because of the surge in the use of Oracle software by businesses. A DBA specialist should take care of the database design and, implement and maintain database security by creating and maintaining users and roles, assigning privileges.

A hands on experience in installation, configuration and upgrading of Oracle server software and related products, evaluating Oracle features and Oracle related products besides establishing and maintaining sound backup and recovery policies and procedures is what companies are looking for.

Besides this, they should perform database tuning and performance monitoring and perform application tuning while also setting up and maintaining documentation and standards. A look at the requirements of DBA specialists at various job sites reveal that companies are looking at someone who has sound communication skills with management, development teams, vendors and systems administrators, and provide a strategic database direction for the organization.

Skills required for DBA specialists are good understanding of the Oracle database, related utilities and tools and a better understanding of the underlying operating system. A sound knowledge of the physical database design and ability to perform both Oracle and operating system performance tuning and monitoring is also desirable, an Oracle developer’s forum site http://forums.oracle.com/forums/index.jspa says.

Knowledge of Oracle backup and recovery scenarios, and security management is also necessary to make it big in the U.S. The site also lists a good knowledge of how Oracle acquires and manages resources, Oracle data integrity and implemented application system as important.

Online job search sites reveal that experience in code migration, database change management and data management through the various stages of the development life cycle and a sound knowledge of both database and system performance tuning will be handy to get a job in the U.S.

Jessie Walia, a U.S. based DBA-Infrastructure architect says, “The market scenario is very good for DBAs in general.” Walia says most companies are okay with these requirements as long as salaries don’t touch $120,000 per annum, as this is where the markets get tough. She says some companies are willing to forego the $120,000 barrier and hire ‘good’ DBAs for up to $150,000 per annum.

She says application DBAs should have close to five or more years of functional knowledge. Application DBAs will get anywhere between $80,000 and $95,000 per annum depending on the city they want to work in. A back-end engineer will draw anywhere between $80,000 to $110,000 while a professional who knows both as well as storage can command a premium of $120,000 and above.