Running records management and information governance at a company or agency, you own the program that captures, organizes, retains, and disposes of records — paper and electronic — meeting regulatory, legal, and operational requirements.
Most weeks tend to mix policy work, system administration, training delivery, and the steady cadence of cross-functional coordination — drafting or updating retention schedules, working with IT on records-management systems, training departments on records procedures, handling legal-hold requests and ediscovery support. You're often the institutional discipline on what gets kept and for how long. Retention compliance and system health tend to be the visible measures.
Where it gets demanding is the cultural gravity against records discipline — most teams know they should manage records well, but the work feels like overhead until a regulator or litigation request arrives. Variance across employers is wide: at regulated industries (financial services, healthcare, government) records management is structured with audit attention; at less-regulated companies the function may be smaller and the influence harder to build.
The role tends to suit people who are organized, regulatorily fluent, and patient with cultural change work. ARMA CRM credentials anchor advancement. The trade-off is the slow visible payoff — good records management compounds over years and is felt most when it's absent.
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Roles like this one sit within a broader occupational category. The numbers below reflect that full landscape — helpful for context, but your specific experience will depend on level, specialty, and where you work.
Roles with similar work and overlapping career paths
View all Business Operations roles →Running records management and information governance at a company or agency, you own the program that captures, organizes, retains, and disposes of records — paper and electronic — meeting regulatory, legal, and operational requirements.
Median pay for a Records and Information Manager is about $108K nationally, with the field ranging roughly from $65K to $200K depending on experience, employer, and metro (BLS).
Core skills for this role include Active Listening, Time Management, Reading Comprehension, Speaking, and Writing.
Most people in this role hold a high school diploma.
Employment in this field is projected to grow about 4.6% through 2034, with roughly 254,140 people working in it today (BLS).
Closely related roles include F and B Director (Food and Beverage Director), Information Director, and L and D Director (Learning and Development Director).
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