What does an application development director do?
The applications development director focuses on ensuring the smooth and productive development process of strategies and applications used in a company. The development director manages a team of developers who will improve, upgrade, and, if needed, replace existing systems and applications currently used in the company. The development director's role is essential for continuing the company's productivity, which is why this position is only open for people with relevant experience in application development and managerial skills. A development director's added tasks are to work with all related departments in the company, collate their application needs, and integrate those inputs to come up with an application that resolves all company problems.
Application development director responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real application development director resumes:
- Manage IP portfolio including strategic partnerships, patents, and licensing.
- Manage the implementation of a SharePoint base project and portfolio management solution and team intranet portal.
- Manage a portfolio of linear and digital projects for multiple executive steering committees utilizing internal and external resources.
- Program manage multiple Disney cross functional business unit teams through new enterprise wide ERP application implementations and custom design applications.
- Manage infrastructure upgrade, replacement and capacity expansion for desktop and middle tier hardware and operating systems in geographically diverse locations.
- Participate in establishing the company's strategic direction relative to the overall systems and technical architecture.
- Develop front-end components using JSP, JHTML and JavaScript.
- Participate in all the phases of development for ETL processes.
- Create Unix job scripts to load vendor market data into enterprise system with post trade reconciliation.
- Partner with external peers to define and enhance API requirements to meet integration needs to third-party systems.
- Code new UNIX scripts used in loading and creating files to be FTP'ed to and from a mainframe application.
- Equip the development team to replace client/server methodologies with responsive web applications including HTML5, cloud, and mobile devices.
- Interview and hire a team of highly skil Java developers to redesign the legacy RPG applications as web portal base products.
- Establish standards and processes for issue/change management, design and testing as well as the company s first QA testing team.
- Implement team coding standards, code review process, team communication practices, QA standards, and principals of pair programming.
Application development director skills and personality traits
We calculated that 13% of Application Development Directors are proficient in Application Development, Architecture, and Java. They’re also known for soft skills such as Collaboration skills, Instructional skills, and Business skills.
We break down the percentage of Application Development Directors that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Application Development, 13%
Developed and implemented application development methodology.
- Architecture, 7%
Launched the initial application and technical architecture governance processes and architecture principles and standards aligned with new company strategy.
- Java, 7%
Structured and reorganized the e-Business practice around Java and Microsoft technologies.
- Software Development, 6%
Advanced through several promotions, culminating in present director-level role overseeing company's software development activities for the transportation management applications.
- Project Management, 6%
Led and managed the company Project Management Office providing leadership and management to project managers, business and functional analyst.
- Scrum, 4%
Partnered with the COO to align with the Agile Scrum process and to provide Product Owners to the MXP Agile teams.
"application development," "architecture," and "java" are among the most common skills that application development directors use at work. You can find even more application development director responsibilities below, including:
Business skills. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of application development directors is business skills. This skill is critical to many everyday application development director duties, as "it managers must develop and implement strategic plans to reach the goals of their organizations." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "support microsoft business online service (microsoft s cloud offering) to support sharepoint collaboration. "
Analytical skills. For certain application development director responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "analytical skills." The day-to-day duties of an application development director rely on this skill, as "it managers must analyze problems and consider and select the best ways to solve them." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what application development directors do: "managed the development and implementation of an enterprise email database using j2ee, websphere, and oracle. "
Organizational skills. Another crucial skill for an application development director to carry out their responsibilities is "organizational skills." A big part of what application development directors relies on this skill, since "some it managers must coordinate the work of several different it departments to make the organization run efficiently." How this skill relates to application development director duties can be seen in an example from an application development director resume snippet: "provide organizational, operational and technical leadership to the development engineering team. "
Communication skills. Another skill commonly found on application development director job descriptions is "communication skills." It can come up quite often in application development director duties, since "it managers must explain their work to top executives and give clear instructions to their subordinates." Here's an example from a resume of how this skill fits into day-to-day application development director responsibilities: "improved inter-company communication and application enablement through the implementation of an employee portal using microsoft sharepoint. "
See the full list of application development director skills
The three companies that hire the most application development directors are:
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Application development director vs. Systems manager
A systems manager is responsible for monitoring the operations of the information technology department, evaluating staff performance, developing strategic procedures to maximize productivity, and identifying business opportunities that would generate more revenues and profitability for the company. Systems managers inspect company networks to ensure the efficiency of the technology systems, conducting regular diagnostic tests, and installing upgrades to boost optimization. A systems manager must have excellent knowledge of the technology industry, as well as a strong command in programming languages and system codes to maintain the security of the company's database.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of an application development director are more likely to require skills like "application development," "architecture," "java," and "software development." On the other hand, a job as a systems manager requires skills like "customer service," "patients," "data entry," and "client facing." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Systems managers earn the highest salaries when working in the technology industry, with an average yearly salary of $116,351. On the other hand, application development directors are paid more in the manufacturing industry with an average salary of $157,492.The education levels that systems managers earn slightly differ from application development directors. In particular, systems managers are 5.3% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than an application development director. Additionally, they're 1.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Application development director vs. Chief technology officer
The job of chief technology officers (CTOs) is to oversee the technological needs and research and development of an organization. The CTOs, who are like chief information officers, make decisions for a company's technology infrastructure that aligns with the organization's business goals. They must ensure that they are updated on new and existing technologies for them to guide the company's future endeavors. Other responsibilities include fixing issues related to information technology, developing and managing the company's technological resources, and participating in management decisions on corporate governance.
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, application development director responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "crm," "business objectives," "azure," and "technical support." Meanwhile, a chief technology officer has duties that require skills in areas such as "infrastructure," "cloud," "python," and "digital transformation." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
On average, chief technology officers earn a higher salary than application development directors. Some industries support higher salaries in each profession. Interestingly enough, chief technology officers earn the most pay in the telecommunication industry with an average salary of $183,468. Whereas application development directors have higher pay in the manufacturing industry, with an average salary of $157,492.Average education levels between the two professions vary. Chief technology officers tend to reach similar levels of education than application development directors. In fact, they're 2.8% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 1.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Application development director vs. Technical services manager
A technical services manager is an individual who supervises and collaborates with staff members and clients to implement maintenance and repairs to the information technology (IT) system. Technical services managers must assist the technical operations performed by programmers and IT support experts to ensure that clients' targets are achievable. They must develop policies and strategies that are effective in fixing critical technical and procedural issues. Technical services managers must also ensure that software and hardware components are up-to-date.
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, an application development director is likely to be skilled in "application development," "architecture," "java," and "software development," while a typical technical services manager is skilled in "customer service," "client facing," "linux," and "email marketing."
Technical services managers earn the best pay in the technology industry, where they command an average salary of $109,385. Application development directors earn the highest pay from the manufacturing industry, with an average salary of $157,492.technical services managers typically earn lower educational levels compared to application development directors. Specifically, they're 9.4% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.8% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Application development director vs. Director of information management
A director of information management is an information technology expert in charge of spearheading the efforts to manage and develop information systems. Their responsibilities revolve around setting goals and objectives, handling budgets, identifying the company's needs, and performing research and analysis to determine the best practices to optimize business operations. They must also keep up with the latest trends in technology and data security for continuous innovations. Furthermore, as a director of information management, it is essential to lead and encourage the workforce to reach goals, all while implementing the company's policies and regulations.
Types of application development director
Updated January 8, 2025
