Administrative director vs administrative operations manager

The differences between administrative directors and administrative operations managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 1-2 years to become an administrative director, becoming an administrative operations manager takes usually requires 4-6 years. Additionally, an administrative director has an average salary of $80,158, which is higher than the $58,648 average annual salary of an administrative operations manager.

The top three skills for an administrative director include patients, patient care and customer service. The most important skills for an administrative operations manager are payroll, customer service, and oversight.

Administrative director vs administrative operations manager overview

	Administrative Director	Administrative Operations Manager
Yearly salary	$80,158	$58,648
Hourly rate	$38.54	$28.20
Growth rate	7%	6%
Number of jobs	52,849	325,720
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 59%	Bachelor's Degree, 62%
Average age	50	44
Years of experience	2	6

What does an administrative director do?

An administrative director primarily functions to oversee daily operations within a company, ensuring everything is running smoothly. Among their responsibilities include monitoring the budget and audits, allocating funds to every department, coordinating with supervisors, and analyzing key data such as finances and progress reports. Additionally, they are also responsible for implementing policies and regulations, even crafting new ones when necessary. They typically report all progress and concerns to higher officials such as the president and vice president.

What does an administrative operations manager do?

An administrative operations manager spearheads and oversees a company's administrative operations, ensuring efficiency and smooth workflow. Among their responsibilities include setting goals and budgets, establishing guidelines and timelines, training staff, and developing strategies to optimize various departments' daily operations. Their responsibilities include performing inspections and assessments, conducting research and analysis, liaising with external parties, and presenting progress reports to higher-ranking officials. Moreover, an administrative operations manager must lead and encourage teams to reach goals, all while enforcing the company's policies and regulations.

Administrative director vs administrative operations manager salary

Administrative directors and administrative operations managers have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Administrative Director	Administrative Operations Manager
Average salary	$80,158	$58,648
Salary range	Between $53,000 And $121,000	Between $39,000 And $87,000
Highest paying City	Boston, MA	San Carlos, CA
Highest paying state	Connecticut	California
Best paying company	Mayer Brown	Riverbed Holdings, Inc.
Best paying industry	Media	Real Estate

Differences between administrative director and administrative operations manager education

There are a few differences between an administrative director and an administrative operations manager in terms of educational background:

	Administrative Director	Administrative Operations Manager
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 59%	Bachelor's Degree, 62%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	University of Pennsylvania

Administrative director vs administrative operations manager demographics

Here are the differences between administrative directors' and administrative operations managers' demographics:

	Administrative Director	Administrative Operations Manager
Average age	50	44
Gender ratio	Male, 33.8% Female, 66.2%	Male, 40.8% Female, 59.2%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 10.0% Unknown, 4.3% Hispanic or Latino, 13.8% Asian, 4.3% White, 67.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5%	Black or African American, 6.3% Unknown, 4.3% Hispanic or Latino, 15.5% Asian, 6.4% White, 67.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5%
LGBT Percentage	5%	10%

Differences between administrative director and administrative operations manager duties and responsibilities

Administrative director example responsibilities.

Manage payroll system and provide staff and directors with essential reporting necessary for managing employee resources.
Manage A/P, A/R and general accounting.
Lead a change in system philosophy on physician equity interest in surgery centers.
Manage administrative operations for the business -purchasing, accounting, payroll, safety and environmental safety training and testing.
Receive and process incoming Medicaid, Medicare, government grants and donation checks.
Charge with improving customer service for patients and physicians as well as re-capturing lose outpatient radiology business.

Administrative operations manager example responsibilities.

Manage team of database administrators, database technicians and systems administrators responsible for maintaining all production, development and QA systems.
Train staff on HIPAA regulations.
Liaise with top hospital administration to attain clearance for international patient prior to surgery and maintain anonymity of high profile patients.
Direct and ensure the development, implementation and evaluation of radiology services.
Negotiate all clinical service contracts including rehabilitation, laboratory, radiology and pharmacy for both independent living and the health center.
Translate business requirements into software change requests to ERP application developers.

Administrative director vs administrative operations manager skills

Common administrative director skills

Patients, 11%
Patient Care, 9%
Customer Service, 6%
Human Resources, 5%
Financial Reports, 5%
Payroll, 5%

Common administrative operations manager skills

Payroll, 10%
Customer Service, 7%
Oversight, 7%
Project Management, 7%
Direct Reports, 6%
Human Resources, 6%

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Administrative Director
Administrative Director vs Administrative Operations Manager

Updated January 8, 2025

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