Throughline

Technology

Database Architect in Buffalo

24 postings read · sampled 2026-09-01 · source ats

What employers actually ask for

Credentials named in the 24 postings we read, ranked by how many mentioned each one.

What it costs

Exam and application fees plus typical self-study hours. Almost nobody needs every credential on this list — start with the top line.

Most-asked-for, on its own
$668Certified Six Sigma Black Belt · ~250 hrs
asked for in 1 of 24 postings — 4%
If you earned all 1 of them
$668
fees checked 2026-08
250 hrs
250 hours — about 25 weeks at 10 hrs/wk

Not in the total: Bachelor's Degree — cost varies by institution; Secret Security Clearance — sponsored by an employer, not purchasable; TS/SCI — sponsored by an employer, not purchasable.

What the official taxonomy says

O*NET surveys people already doing this job. That describes who got hired over a long window, not what employers are asking for now — where it disagrees with the counts above, the counts are the more current answer.

Education reported by people doing this job
76%reported bachelor’s degree
  • Bachelor’s degree76%
  • Master’s degree14%
  • Post-secondary certificate5%

Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed. Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

O*NET 15-1243.00 · pulled 2026-09-01 · percentages are of surveyed workers, each rounded separately, so they need not total 100

This sample is small enough that one posting moves any percentage by more than a couple of points, so we are not calling anything low-signal here. Read the numbers above as a direction, not a measurement.

What it pays

BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. A different survey from the postings above, so the two do not share a sample.

$73,070
10th percentile
$128,100
median
$164,070
90th percentile

Every credential above costs $668 — about 1 day's pay at the median.

Who was hiring

Employers with at least one matching posting in this sample.

Anthropic · Ridgeline · Scale AI · Figma · Headway · Airtable · Charlie Health · Equinox · Farther · Ramp · Zocdoc

The same role elsewhere

Next

  • Roast and Resolve — Now aim your résumé at this target. Free roast, paid rewrite.
  • Synap — Two-minute daily lessons to drill the skills underneath the credential.