The person who manages an organization's records — physical and electronic — handling classification, retention, retrieval, disposition, and the compliance work that records management requires.
Day-to-day tends to involve processing records, supporting retrieval requests, managing retention schedules, supporting audits or legal holds, and coordinating with departments on records-related questions. The role often becomes the institutional knowledge for how records actually work — what categories things get coded to, where the gaps are, and what retention applies when.
Coordination tends to happen with departments across the organization, legal counsel, IT (for electronic records and systems), auditors, and sometimes regulators. Legal holds and litigation support are real parts of the work — when records become evidence, the discipline of records management matters intensely.
People who tend to thrive here are methodical, detail-oriented, and comfortable with the structured discipline of records work. If you find document-heavy work tedious or want creative roles, the focus can feel narrow. If you find satisfaction in being the careful keeper of organizational records that document what actually happened, the role offers steady, increasingly important work — particularly as electronic records and information governance grow more complex.
Where this role sits in the broader career landscape — and where it can take you.
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 Admin & Office roles →The person who manages an organization's records — physical and electronic — handling classification, retention, retrieval, disposition, and the compliance work that records management requires.
Median pay for a Records Specialist is about $75K nationally, with the field ranging roughly from $30K to $177K depending on experience, employer, and metro (BLS).
Core skills for this role include Reading Comprehension, Reading Comprehension, Active Listening, Writing, and Critical Thinking.
Most people in this role hold a bachelor's degree.
Employment in this field is projected to decline about 3.85% through 2034, with roughly 518,360 people working in it today (BLS).
Closely related roles include Senior Records Specialist, Business Analyst, and Medical Records Clerk.
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