Storage Engineer
Career Area: Information Technology
Occupation Group: Network and Systems Engineering
Salary
Percentile wages tell how much a certain percentage of an overall population in a geographic area or within a given industry or field makes. The percentile wage estimate is the value of a wage below which a certain percent of workers fall.
An example would be the 25th percentile, 25 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 75 percent earn more than the estimated wage value. At the 75th percentile, 75 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 25 percent earn more than the estimated wage value.
A typical Storage Engineer earns the following wages (national and state):
State
The average salary in North Carolina for those pursuing this career is $97,029
National
The average salary in the United States for those pursuing this career is $103,290
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
Evaluates, implements and maintains storage hardware and software, including storage subsystems, switches, and cabling. Manages system backups, monitors system availability, develops and maintains documentation related to storage. Resolves problems and establishes disaster recovery systems.
Employment Trends
The job demand and job growth statistics shown here were derived from job posts over the past year. Expected job growth projections are extrapolated from year-over-year job post listing history.
Job demand and job growth is expected at the following rates:
| Location | Growth | |
|---|---|---|
| North Carolina | 48 | +2.6% |
| Nationwide | 1475 | +5.3% |
Skills
A professional in this position typically utilizes the following skills in the course of everyday work in this exciting and challenging field:
Baseline Skills
The following are baseline skills every Storage Engineer is expected to have in order to experience success in this field:
- Troubleshooting: Troubleshooting or dpanneuring is a form of problem solving, often applied to repair failed products or processes on a machine or a system.
- Planning: Working experience with the process of thinking about and organizing the activities required to achieve desired goals.
- Communication Skills: The ability to convey information to another effectively and efficiently.
- Teamwork / Collaboration: Experience working in collaborative efforts with a team to achieve a common goal or to complete a task in the most effective and efficient way.
- Problem Solving: Problem solving consists of using generic or ad hoc methods, in an orderly manner, for finding solutions to problems.
Specialized Skills
These skills are specific to working in this career:
- Linux: Linux (pronounced LIN-ks or, less frequently, LYN-ks) is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open-source software development and distribution.
- VMware: VMware, Inc. is a subsidiary of Dell Technologies that provides cloud computing and platform virtualization software and services.
- NetApp: Working experience of NetApp, which is an American multinational storage and data management company. NetApp offers software, systems and services to manage and store data, including its proprietary Data ONTAP operating system.
- Network Attached Storage (NAS): Network-attached storage (NAS) is a file-level computer data storage server connected to a computer network providing data access to a heterogeneous group of clients.
- Storage Systems: Working experience of Storage Systems, which is any computing hardware that is used for storing, porting and extracting data files and objects. It can hold and store information both temporarily and permanently, and can be internal or external to a computer, server or any similar computing device.
Distinguishing Skills
Any Storage Engineer that possesses the following skills will stand out against the competition:
- VMware vSphere: Working experience ofVMware vSphere, which is an enhanced suite of tools for cloud computing utilizing VMware ESX/ESXi 4.
- Red Hat Linux Administration: Working experience of Red Hat Linux Administration, which is competency at system administration, including installation and configuration of a Red Hat Enterprise Linux system and attaching it to a live network running network services.
- EMC Isilon: Working experience of EMC Isilon, which is a scale out network-attached storage platform offered by Dell EMC for high-volume storage, backup and archiving of unstructured data.
- Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS): Working experience of Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS). The Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) is a data center server computer product line composed of computing hardware, virtualization support, switching fabric, and management software introduced in 2009 by Cisco Systems.
- EMC DataDomain: Working experience of EMC DataDomain. Dell EMC Data Domain systems reduce the amount of disk storage needed to retain and protect data by ratios of 10-30x and greater.
Experience
This position typically requires the following level of experience. The numbers presented in the pie charts below were derived from actual job posts over the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Experience Required | % |
| 0 to 2 years | 11% |
| 3 to 5 years | 47% |
| 6 to 8 years | 22% |
Many of the programs offered through NC State are designed for working professionals who need additional credentials to enhance existing work experience.
Students who do not have the expected level of experience may wish to look into internship and employment opportunities.
Common Job Titles
It is possible to find work in this field in positions commonly listed as the following job titles:
- Senior Storage Engineer
- Lead Storage Engineer Remote
- Storage Systems Engineer
- Senior Mainframe Storage Engineer
- Server/Storage Systems Engineer
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