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Hiring a computer specialist in Sacramento, CA

Employers in the Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA area pay computer occupations, all other a median of $110,980, with the middle half of the market between $76,710 and $151,840. Sacramento residents working in computer and mathematical occupations report a median of $85,549, which is 23% below what the metro pays for this role.

What does a computer specialist earn here?

Place of work

What employers pay

Annual wages paid by employers in the Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA area. BLS OEWS, May 2025.
25th percentile$76,710
Median$110,980
75th percentile$151,840

Half of computer occupations, all other in this area earn between $76,710 and $151,840. A band set below $76,710 competes for the bottom quarter of the market.

Place of residence

What Sacramento residents earn

$85,549

Median earnings of Sacramento residents working in computer and mathematical occupations, 11,648 people. Census ACS 5-year 2023, tables S2401 and B24011. Where people live, not where they work, so it is not the same measurement as the wages beside it.

The 23% figure is not a pay gap. ACS counts the civilian employed population 16 and over, part-time and part-year work included; OEWS counts wage-and-salary jobs only. The two populations differ, so read this number against other cities rather than as a shortfall: the same definitional difference applies to every city equally, which is what makes a city-to-city reading sound.

The role pays well above the local residential norm, which usually means you can hire from inside Sacramento rather than competing for commuters.

What does the role actually involve?

Core tasks

  • Monitor systems for intrusions or denial of service attacks, and report security breaches to appropriate personnel.
  • Identify or document backup or recovery plans.
  • Back up or modify applications and related data to provide for disaster recovery.
  • Correct testing-identified problems, or recommend actions for their resolution.
  • Identify, standardize, and communicate levels of access and security.

O*NET 29.1, task statements for SOC 15-1299.

Tools and technologies in demand

Adobe ColdFusion, Adobe Photoshop, Amazon Web Services AWS software, Apache Tomcat, Cascading style sheets CSS, Content management systems CMS, Drupal, Extensible markup language XML.

O*NET 29.1, flagged in demand or hot for this occupation. Useful as a screen, not as a checklist.

Is the talent actually in Sacramento?

This is a job zone four: considerable preparation needed occupation. Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

That matters here, because 36.4% of Sacramento adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher. That is a workable pool, but the search will reach beyond the city line. Census ACS 5-year 2023, table S1501.

The average Sacramento commute runs 25.6 minutes, which is roughly how far your catchment reaches before candidates start saying no. 17.7% already work from home, so a fully onsite requirement here is competing against that.

How often do these jobs turn over?

In Sacramento County, computer systems design and related services employs 9,253 and turns over 6.9% a quarter, with 923 hires against 820 separations. Average earnings in that industry run $10,406 a month. Census LEHD Quarterly Workforce Indicators, 2024 Q1, NAICS 5415.

That figure covers every occupation in the industry, not this role alone, so read it as the local churn rate rather than as a number about computer occupations, all other. It still tells you what you are hiring into: a low-churn market, where people do not move often and passive candidates are the whole game.

What does the search cost?

The fee is set by the seniority of the role, never by salary and never by location. Across all six tiers it runs $6,240 to $54,340 per search. A contingency firm hiring at this role's median would bill roughly $22,196 to $33,294 on the first year salary alone.

One owner runs the search from market map to signed offer. Searches typically fill in 23 to 35 days, which is a typical window rather than a promise, and the replacement guarantee runs 45 days at 50% off.

Price this search

Eight questions about the role. Your tier range appears on screen.

Hiring a computer specialist somewhere else?

Same role, different market. The wage band moves with the metro.

Other computer and mathematical roles in Sacramento

Related

Sacramento is the 6th largest of 21 California cities in this dataset.