BACKUP ADMINISTRATOR JOB DESCRIPTION

A Backup Administrator protects an organization's data by owning the systems and processes that ensure everything can be recovered when it matters most. Corporate backup infrastructure spans on-premises disk and tape libraries, cloud platforms, and virtualized environments - each with its own SLA obligations and RPO/RTO targets that this role is responsible for meeting. Audit cycles, change management workflows, and capacity governance are routine fixtures. Those targets do not negotiate themselves.

As the Backup Administrator, you maintain and optimize enterprise-wide backup and recovery infrastructure across physical, virtual, and cloud environments, ensuring SLA compliance and operational continuity for critical business systems. You work within an infrastructure or IT operations team, supporting cross-functional escalations while managing capacity planning, incident resolution, and routine backup audits independently.

Career Impact: Proficiency across enterprise backup platforms and DR frameworks positions you for senior infrastructure or cloud storage architect roles within the IT operations market.

Business Impact: When recovery windows are missed, the downstream cost to the business is immediate - your work directly determines whether application and database restores succeed within required RTO and RPO thresholds.

Growth Opportunity: Hands-on exposure to cloud backup integrations across major hyperscalers and scripting-based automation broadens your market value toward cloud infrastructure and DevOps-adjacent paths.

• Design and maintain backup architecture spanning on-premises, tape library, and public cloud environments to meet organizational SLA requirements.
• Administer backup software deployments including installation, configuration, patch cycles, and proactive performance optimization.
• Perform single-file, full-VM, and database restores for application teams, validating recovery integrity against defined RPO and RTO targets.
• Monitor backup job execution and alert thresholds, investigating failures and escalating persistent issues to vendors or senior engineering teams.
• Conduct scheduled audits of backup configurations, retention policies, and storage capacity to ensure regulatory and procedural compliance.
• Coordinate capacity planning and generate management reports covering backup success rates, storage utilization, and cost recovery metrics.
• Manage incident and change management tickets through the service management platform, documenting root cause findings and resolution steps.
• Mentor junior administrators on backup platform operations, troubleshooting methodology, and change control procedures.

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field, or equivalent work experience.
• 3 or more years of enterprise backup and recovery administration experience, with demonstrated ownership of multi-site or hybrid infrastructure.
• Working knowledge of virtualization environments, including backup and recovery of hypervisor-hosted workloads.
• Understanding of storage networking concepts including SAN, NAS, tape libraries, and disk-based deduplication appliances.
• Familiarity with cloud backup and archiving services across at least one major hyperscaler platform.
• Ability to interpret and work toward defined SLA thresholds including RPO and RTO parameters.
• Experience with incident and change management processes within an ITSM ticketing environment.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills for cross-team escalation and management reporting.

• Professional certification in a major backup platform or cloud infrastructure discipline.
• Scripting proficiency in PowerShell, Python, or shell for backup automation and reporting workflows.
• Experience supporting database backup and recovery for enterprise database platforms such as Oracle or SQL Server.
• Exposure to replication configuration and disaster recovery testing in a production or pre-production environment.

• Backup job success rate (%), tracking the proportion of scheduled jobs completing without failure or missed windows.
• Mean time to restore (hours), measuring how quickly application or database assets are recovered following a declared incident.
• SLA compliance rate (%), reflecting adherence to defined RPO and RTO commitments across the protected environment.
• Storage capacity utilization (%), informing capacity planning cycles and triggering proactive scaling before threshold breaches.
• Audit finding closure rate (%), measuring how promptly identified gaps in backup configuration or retention are remediated.
• Typical tools: backup software (commonly Commvault, Veritas NetBackup, IBM Spectrum Protect); cloud backup services (commonly Azure Backup, AWS S3-based archiving).

• Base Salary Range: $80,000 to $115,000 per year, depending on experience and location
• Bonus: Annual performance bonus, typically 5% to 10% of base salary
• Equity: Uncommon at individual contributor level; occasional RSU grants at larger enterprises
• Health Benefits: Medical, dental, and vision coverage; employer contributions standard
• PTO: 15 to 20 days annually, plus federal holidays
• Common Perks: On-call rotation compensation, vendor certification reimbursement, remote or hybrid work options

Figures are estimates based on general US market benchmarks and may be outdated. Adjust based on location, company size, and seniority level.

Work authorization in the United States is required; sponsorship for employment visas is not available for this position. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected under applicable federal, state, or local law. Reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities are available upon request. Employment is contingent on successful completion of a background check.

The Backup Administrator owns configuration, maintenance, and troubleshooting of a multi-site backup infrastructure built on Spectrum Protect and Spectrum Protect Plus technologies. Working within a mentored squad environment, this role ensures consistent recovery processes, regulatory compliance, and uptime outcomes that protect critical applications and data.

Key Responsibilities

• Perform backup configuration, maintenance, and troubleshooting tasks for a multi-site backup infrastructure.
• Install, configure, maintain, and document Spectrum Protect and Spectrum Protect Plus backup technologies.
• Develop, implement, and oversee policies and procedures to ensure consistent backup and recovery processes, uptime, and regulatory compliance.
• Participate in recovery testing to ensure applications and databases can be recovered from backups.
• Perform single file and full VM recovery on Spectrum Protect Plus.
• Interact with other teams to assist in troubleshooting, identify root cause, and provide technical support when needed.
• Perform routine and scheduled audits of the systems, including all backups.
• Manage incidents and changes using the ServiceNow ticketing tool.

Required Qualifications

• Experience in administration of backup systems and data archival.
• Experience in administration of tape libraries and storage technology.
• Experience in administration of operating systems.
• Familiarity with Spectrum Protect and Spectrum Protect Plus backup technologies.
• Experience with incident and change management processes in a ticketing environment.

Reporting to the infrastructure leadership team, the Backup Administrator shapes backup architecture across on-premises and public cloud environments, including AWS, GCP, and Azure, while managing capacity planning, SLA reporting, and storage appliances. Partnering with technical teams to resolve escalated incidents and improve disaster recovery solutions, this role ensures data protection standards and business continuity outcomes are consistently met.

Primary Duties

• Define and set up backup architecture on-premises and in public cloud environments.
• Improve backup and disaster recovery solutions.
• Resolve incidents and problems, providing level 2 support on escalation.
• Manage capacity planning and backup application performance.
• Generate reporting and ensure backup SLAs are met.
• Manage storage appliances, including tape library, disk, and cloud.

Education & Experience

• BSc or MSc in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent.
• 2 to 5 years of relevant experience in backup administration.
• Proficient with Windows operating systems, network services (IP, DHCP, DNS), and cloud solutions (AWS, GCP, Azure).
• Familiar with backup applications and have a strong understanding of RPO and RTO concepts.
• Experience with databases such as MSSQL and scripting with PowerShell or similar tools.
• Proficient in English for reading, writing specifications, and documenting system changes.
• Self-organized, proactive, customer-oriented, and able to communicate effectively with technical teams.

Sitting at the intersection of storage engineering and data protection, the Backup Administrator leads administration of Commvault and Veritas NetBackup solutions across Oracle, SQL, VMware, and UNIX environments while producing management reports that support cost recovery and capacity planning. Operating across SAN, NAS, and cloud platforms including Azure, this role contributes to disaster recovery planning and ensures all backups run within SLA.

Duties

• Administer, install, configure, and proactively maintain Commvault and Veritas NetBackup solutions to ensure backups run within SLA.
• Manage backup infrastructure operations including hotfixes, code upgrades, performance optimizations, and alert monitoring.
• Configure, maintain, and troubleshoot database backups across Oracle, SQL, VMware, Exadata, and NDMP environments.
• Produce regular reports for management to assist in cost recovery, capacity planning, and consolidation.
• Implement SAN and NAS solutions with CommVault and contribute to disaster recovery planning for VMware, Windows, and UNIX platforms.
• Handle CommVault Catalog databases, Storage Units, Policies, De-Duplication, and vStorage APIs.
• Perform backup and recovery baseline testing and participate in audits.
• Monitor and manage data storage systems, SAN devices, and datastores, coordinating with vendors for technical resolution.

Skills & Qualifications

• 8 or more years of storage and backup administration experience.
• Technical or professional certification in a data protection and recovery tool, with Commvault preferred.
• Possess strong architectural understanding of virtualization, FC networks, IP networks, replication, high availability, and operating systems.
• Experienced with storage networking, Commvault troubleshooting, and resolving escalated incidents.
• Experience with VMware and Azure Cloud environments is a strong plus.

A key member of the infrastructure team, the Backup Administrator delivers technical support and guidance across a corporate backup environment encompassing VMware, cloud technologies, tape infrastructure, and EMC Networker. Collaborating across operations to train junior administrators, manage change control, and provide capacity and cost-benefit analysis, this role ensures mission-critical data remains protected and recoverable at enterprise scale.

Leadership Responsibilities

• Provide technical support and guidance for a corporate backup infrastructure.
• Support and maintain cloud backup technologies and open systems backup clients utilizing VMware.
• Provide reporting to track and recover failed backups and plan for data capacity.
• Support tape infrastructure and tape operations.
• Monitor backup capacity and provide cost-benefit analysis across data retention technologies.
• Train and mentor junior backup administrators.
• Create and review change control records and participate in on-call rotation.

Professional Experience

• 8 or more years of experience supporting a corporate backup infrastructure, including client scheduling, restoring data, reporting, and troubleshooting backup failures.
• Experience in designing backups in virtualized environments and managing high-performance, mission-critical storage infrastructures.
• Experience with EMC Networker, Data Domain, ECS, tape infrastructure, and cloud technologies for data archiving.
• In-depth knowledge of storage archiving, tiering, de-duplication, replication protocols, enterprise tape libraries, and backup software.
• Experience with automation using REST API, Python, or shell scripting.
• Experience with capacity reporting, planning, and shared or clustered file systems.

Reliable data protection for managed services customers depends on the Backup Administrator, who builds Commvault software solutions, troubleshoots complex backup issues across Oracle, SAP HANA, VMware, and Microsoft 365 environments, and architects deployments to address evolving client needs. Based within a 24/7 managed services operation, this role maintains customer relationships, case ownership, and contractual delivery while working alongside developers to implement and test product enhancements.

Key Deliverables

• Interact with customers via phone and email to troubleshoot and resolve complex backup issues.
• Perform data migration tasks to transition customers from previous backup infrastructure to new infrastructure.
• Install and configure backup agents to protect customer applications, databases, and hypervisors.
• Maintain case ownership and keep customers informed of progress through periodic updates.
• Architect Commvault software solutions to address customer needs and proactively suggest improvements to expand deployments.
• Develop requirements and design for Commvault software modifications, working with developers to implement and test enhancements.
• Develop subject matter expertise on assigned client product lines, SOPs, bugs, and applicable fixes.
• Maintain awareness of the customer base and ensure delivery against contractual obligations.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Electronics, or equivalent, with a Master's preferred.
• Certified in Commvault (Professional or Engineer level) or advanced industry certifications in AWS, VMware, Microsoft, or Linux.
• 5 or more years of Backup and Recovery domain experience, including at least 3 years of Commvault experience in technical support or managed services.
• Strong knowledge of networking, storage, and operating systems (Windows and Linux), including TCP/IP, SCSI, iSCSI, and Fibre Channel.
• Experienced with backup and recovery of Microsoft 365, Microsoft Applications, databases (Oracle, SAP HANA), hypervisors (VMware, Hyper-V), and file sets.
• Hands-on experience with object storage (AWS S3, NetApp StorageGRID) and data archive and search.
• Excellent diagnostic, troubleshooting, communication, and customer service skills.
• Ability to work independently in a high-volume environment.
• Able to work rotational shifts to provide 24/7/365 coverage for managed services customers.