Occupation / job
Computer Network Architects
Median annual pay. Half earn less than this.
Hourly at a standard 2,080-hour year. We do not yet have unpaid-time or cost data for this, so this is not an adjusted figure.
The middle half. A quarter earn below this range.
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 · view
What this figure cannot tell you
It covers people EMPLOYED in this occupation. Anyone who trained for it and was never hired is not in the median above, and neither is anyone doing the work self-employed. No verified count of qualified people exists for this occupation, so this page shows none rather than an estimate. Why that matters · The occupations where we could source it
Who this suits
$134,050 puts Computer Network Architects among the highest medians BLS publishes, roughly 168% above the $50,020 all-occupation midpoint. Pay at this level always has a gate in front of it: a residency, a bar exam, a clearance, or a decade.
179,740 people are employed as Computer Network Architects. At that size there is a real ladder and enough churn that experience can be sold to a competitor rather than only accumulated where you are.
Computing suits people who can keep learning after what they learned stops being used. The skill with the longest half-life is the habit of relearning, not any particular stack.
No verified preparation time is on file for Computer Network Architects. The wage survey behind every figure on this page asks employers what they pay, not what they required, so the honest answer here is that we do not know.
Who should not do this
$104,620 to $168,200 — 1.6x, or $5,298 a month between the quarters. An unremarkable spread, which means the useful planning number for Computer Network Architects is the bottom of it rather than the middle.
Even at the 25th percentile Computer Network Architects pays $104,620, $54,600 clear of the $50,020 national midpoint. Almost the entire distribution sits above the typical American wage, which is rare and worth weighing against the entry cost.
Avoid it if you want a skill set that stays valuable without maintenance — this is the field where standing still is fastest punished.
There is no failure rate on this page because there is nothing honest to divide by. BLS counted 179,740 people employed as Computer Network Architects; it did not count the people who trained for it and are doing something else, and a rate built without that denominator would be a number we made up.
What the spread tells you
A 1.6x ratio is the most common shape in this data: some room to move, none of it quick. Read $134,050 as where you might be after years in Computer Network Architects, and $104,620 as where you would start.
The middle half of this field earns between $104,620 and $168,200. That is $63,580 of range, with $134,050 sitting inside it as the point half the field is above and half below.
Between $104,620 and $168,200 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $134,050. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $34,150; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $63,580.
From $134,050 it is $29,430 down to the bottom quarter and $34,150 up to the top. The upper half of the range is the longer one, which is the ordinary shape for work where experience compounds.
On a 2,080-hour year the midpoint for Computer Network Architects is $64.44 an hour. The quarters sit at $50.29 and $80.86, and the all-occupation midpoint at $24.04.
What these figures are, and what they are not
Employers reported these wages for people already working as Computer Network Architects. The self-employed are excluded, so $134,050 does not describe an independent doing the same work.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Computer Network Architects, the hourly figure is $134,050 over a 2,080-hour year — a unit conversion, not an adjustment.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else