How to hire an applications project manager

How to hire an applications project manager, step by step

Here's a step-by-step applications project manager hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write an applications project manager job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new applications project manager
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does an applications project manager do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the applications project manager you need to hire. Certain applications project manager roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   An applications project manager's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, applications project managers from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   Here's a comparison of applications project manager salaries for various roles:

   Type of Applications Project Manager	Description	Hourly rate
   Applications Project Manager		$38-60
   Project Leader	A project leader is responsible for supervising the team and managing the distribution of tasks to ensure the project's success with the highest efficiency and accuracy. Duties of a project leader include motivating the team, managing the team's needs and concerns, providing effective strategies to improve the team's performance, creating reports, monitoring the team's progress, and maintaining the coordination between team members... Show more	$33-66
   Manager Applications Development	An applications development manager is responsible for keeping businesses running smoothly and effectively through planning, coordinating, and overseeing all activities related to software applications. You will oversee the maintenance, upgrade, and support of existing applications and systems required for the smooth day-to-day operations of the business... Show more	$46-75

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Project Management
   • Scrum
   • Application Development
   • Project Scope
   • CRM
   • HR
   • SDLC
   • Web Application
   • Java
   • Status Reports
   • Risk Management
   • Process Improvement
   • SharePoint
   • Ongoing Support

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage development team, technical support team, as well as training, technical writing and QA departments.
   • Manage and develop mini applications for the company's SharePoint intranet system.
   • Manage the training, technical writing and QA departments to effectively deliver user documentation, and business documentation.
   • Lead cross-functional project teams comprise of development, analysis, architecture, quality assurance, implementation, documentation and training resources.
   • Support preparation for ERP migration to a new system.
   • Develop a standard services API customers can use to integrate with MSA's flagship cable television ERP solution (Gabriel).

   More applications project manager duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your applications project manager job description is one of the best ways to attract top talent. An applications project manager can vary based on:

   • Location. For example, applications project managers' average salary in tennessee is 36% less than in california.
   • Seniority. Entry-level applications project managers 36% less than senior-level applications project managers.
   • Certifications. An applications project manager with certifications usually earns a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for an established firm or a new start-up company can make a big difference in an applications project manager's salary.

   Average applications project manager salary

   $101,626yearly

   $48.86 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level applications project manager salary

   $81,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 15, 2025

   Average applications project manager salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$133,789	$64
   2	Pennsylvania	$107,330	$52
   3	District of Columbia	$105,430	$51
   4	Michigan	$103,074	$50
   5	New Jersey	$102,940	$49
   6	Delaware	$102,739	$49
   7	New York	$101,902	$49
   8	Virginia	$101,495	$49
   9	Connecticut	$101,469	$49
   10	North Carolina	$100,898	$49
   11	Georgia	$97,883	$47
   12	Massachusetts	$94,967	$46
   13	Wisconsin	$94,689	$46
   14	Illinois	$93,756	$45
   15	Minnesota	$93,296	$45
   16	Texas	$92,439	$44
   17	Florida	$92,390	$44
   18	Colorado	$89,533	$43

   Average applications project manager salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	MRI Software	$126,526	$60.83
   2	AIG	$120,085	$57.73	3
   3	Wachovia Securities	$117,244	$56.37
   4	McKesson	$114,297	$54.95	11
   5	Solenis	$114,131	$54.87
   6	Project One	$111,896	$53.80
   7	The Computer Merchant	$111,172	$53.45
   8	Randstad North America, Inc.	$108,153	$52.00	9
   9	Robert Half	$106,158	$51.04	121
   10	Brookfield, LLC	$105,730	$50.83	4
   11	Scripps Health	$105,426	$50.69	2
   12	Jade Global	$105,237	$50.59	2
   13	Essilor USA	$105,144	$50.55
   14	United Rentals	$104,731	$50.35
   15	American Red Cross	$104,513	$50.25
   16	Lowe's Companies	$103,763	$49.89	7
   17	IBX Foundation	$103,705	$49.86
   18	Morgan Advanced Materials And Technology Inc	$102,632	$49.34
   19	Stantec	$102,297	$49.18	557
   20	PDS Tech	$99,960	$48.06

4. Writing an applications project manager job description

   An applications project manager job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. To help get you started, here's an example of an applications project manager job description:

   Applications project manager job description example

   LaBella Associates was established in 1978 and is a certified Great Place To Work. We are headquartered in Rochester, NY with offices across New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, and Madrid, Spain. LaBella is a multi-disciplined architectural and engineering firm dedicated to client satisfaction through teamwork, respect, and trust. We provide services that take a project from start to finish-from an initial study to determine a project's feasibility to construction administration and start up, and everything in between.
   
   We are currently hiring 3 Application Architects in our Program Management Services division at our CT, ME, and NY offices.
   
   The Program Management Services Division at LaBella provides comprehensive management services for complex projects and multi-year capital programs. Project teams are established to provide a customized mix of business consulting, project management, financial control and monitoring, administrative, and technical support services.
   
   The Application Architect understands existing application architectures including associated product vendors, application requirements, configurable settings, application interfaces, associated data flows, compatibility and interoperability risks. This role understands current architectures and develops potential new and/or augmented architecture focusing on areas such as privileged user access, identities and access, data classification, etc.
   
   Supports cyber assurance audits and assessments and delivers and ensures security of new functionality. Ensures only secure, trusted code is implemented, that gold images are managed, that PKI and key management strategies are properly designed and implemented, and that recovery mechanisms are architected and properly implemented. Develops workflows and user roles for role-based security and determines required user access to networks and devices.
   
   Develops application concepts and works on the capabilities needed for all phases of the development life cycle; translates technology and environmental conditions (e.g., law and regulation) into application architecture and security designs and processes. Ensures that the stakeholder security requirements necessary to protect the organization's mission and business processes are adequately addressed in all aspects of application architecture.
   Responsibilities Design modeling and building use cases (e.g., unified modeling language). Apply best-practice methods, standards, and approaches for describing, analyzing, and documenting our Client's application architecture. Optimize application architecture to meet performance requirements. Execute application integration processes and build application architectures and frameworks. Apply cybersecurity and privacy principles to organizational requirements (relevant to confidentiality, integrity, availability, authentication, non-repudiation). Define and prioritize essential application capabilities or business functions required for partial or full system restoration after a catastrophic failure event. Define appropriate levels of application availability based on critical system functions and ensure that system requirements identify appropriate disaster recovery and continuity of operations requirements to include any appropriate fail-over/alternate site requirements, backup requirements, and material supportability requirements for system recover/restoration. Develop/integrate cybersecurity designs for applications with multilevel security requirements. Ensure that acquired or developed application(s) and architecture(s) are consistent with organization's cybersecurity architecture guidelines. Perform security reviews, identify gaps in application architecture, support risk management. Support activities requiring costs, design concepts/ changes to the application architecture. Provide input on application security requirements to be included in statements of work and other appropriate procurement documents. Provide input to the Risk Management Framework process activities and related documentation (e.g., system life-cycle support plans, concept of operations, operational procedures, and maintenance training materials). Define and document how the implementation of a new application or new interfaces between applications impacts the security posture of the current environment. Analyze application architectures, allocate security services, and select security mechanisms. Develop an application security context, a preliminary applications security Concept of Operations (CONOPS), and define baseline applications security requirements in accordance with applicable cybersecurity requirements. Evaluate applications architectures to determine adequacy of security design and architecture proposed or provided in response to requirements contained in acquisition documents. Analyze user needs and requirements to plan application architecture. Develop application architecture and/or components required to meet user needs. Document and update as necessary all application definition and architecture activities. Determine the protection needs (i.e., security controls) for the application architecture and document appropriately. Qualifications BA/BS degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Business, or related field 5 years in Operational Technology Security 10 years of OT/IT/Enterprise architecture and program implementation experience Knowledge of installation, integration, and optimization of applications and components. Database systems. Knowledge of cybersecurity and privacy principles and organizational requirements (relevant to confidentiality, integrity, availability, authentication, non-repudiation). Knowledge of network access, identity, and access management (e.g., public key infrastructure, Oauth, OpenID, SAML, SPML). Knowledge of application management principles, models, methods (e.g., end-to-end systems performance monitoring), and tools. Knowledge of confidentiality, integrity, and availability requirements. Knowledge of multi-level security systems and cross domain solutions. Knowledge of application protection planning (e.g. information technology (IT) supply chain security/risk management policies, anti-tampering techniques, and requirements). Possess knowledge of network protocols such as TCP/IP, Dynamic Host Configuration, Domain Name System (DNS), and directory services. Knowledge of our client's information classification program and procedures for information compromise. Familiarity with laws, regulations, policies, and ethics as they relate to cybersecurity and privacy. Knowledge of key concepts in security management (e.g., Release Management, Patch Management). Knowledge of security system design tools, methods, and techniques. Knowledge of software engineering. Knowledge of application design processes, to include understanding of security objectives, operational objectives, and trade-offs. SharePoint knowledge Teams knowledge Auditing/controls experience Develop Self & Others Empower to grow Collaborate and Share Be a role model Focus to achieve results Be agile
   The offer of employment for this position will be conditioned upon a satisfactory criminal background check.
   
   Company Perks
   Health/Dental Insurance 401k Plan Short & Long Term Disability Profit Sharing Paid Time Off Verizon Wireless Discount Gym Reimbursement Tuition Reimbursement Referral Bonus Program Wellness Program Team Building Events Community Service Events LaBella Associates does not accept unsolicited resumes from recruiting professionals or agencies, nor do we accept resumes from any source that does not reference a specific, open position. LaBella Associates will not be responsible for any fees arising from the use of resume submitted by recruiting professionals or agencies that do not have a current placement fee agreement with LaBella Associates. All initial communication with recruiting professionals or agencies must go through human resources.

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5. Post your job

   To find the right applications project manager for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with applications project managers they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit applications project managers who meet your education requirements.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your applications project manager job on Zippia to find and attract quality applications project manager candidates.
   • Use niche websites such as dice, engineering.com, stack overflow, it job pro.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   To successfully recruit applications project managers, your first interview needs to engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. You can go into more detail about the company, the role, and the responsibilities during follow-up interviews.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match your ideal candidate profile. If you think a candidate is good enough for the next step, you can move on to the technical interview.

   While interviews are great, you will only sometimes learn enough from a conversation with an applications project manager applicant. In those cases, having candidates complete a test project can go a long way in figuring out who's the most likely to succeed in the role. If you aren't a technical person and don't know how to design an appropriate test, you can ask someone else on the team to create it or take a look at these websites to get a few ideas:

   • TestDome
   • CodeSignal
   • Testlify
   • BarRaiser
   • Coderbyte

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new applications project manager

   Once you have selected a candidate for the applications project manager position, it is time to create an offer letter. In addition to salary, the offer letter should include details about benefits and perks that are available to the employee. Ensuring your offer is competitive is vital, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and it is important to be open to discussion and reach a mutually beneficial agreement. After the offer has been accepted, it is a good idea to formalize the agreement with a contract.

   It's equally important to follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   To prepare for the new applications project manager first day, you should share an onboarding schedule with them that covers their first period on the job. You should also quickly complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Finally, Human Resources must ensure a new employee file is created for internal record keeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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