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Associate director vs project director

The differences between associate directors and project directors can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, an associate director has an average salary of $114,223, which is higher than the $107,396 average annual salary of a project director.

The top three skills for an associate director include patients, healthcare and project management. The most important skills for a project director are project management, oversight, and customer satisfaction.

Associate director vs project director overview

Associate DirectorProject Director
Yearly salary$114,223$107,396
Hourly rate$54.91$51.63
Growth rate8%-
Number of jobs72,370116,968
Job satisfaction55
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 66%Bachelor's Degree, 66%
Average age4747
Years of experience--

What does an associate director do?

An associate director oversees the daily activities and business operations within a particular area. They are primarily responsible for devising strategies that aim for growth in profit and customer satisfaction, implementing policies and standards, evaluate the workforce, providing support to various departments, and setting goals in terms of budget and sales. Furthermore, they must regularly report progress to the director and coordinate with managers and supervisors in the joint effort to reach the vision and mission of the company.

What does a project director do?

A project director is an individual responsible for supervising workers from various departments given specific tasks to complete a given project. They create a budget to complete a job while monitoring the amount of money spent to ensure that overspending is avoided. They provide presentations to investors, business partners, and company executives to inform them about their progress and development. Project directors must have several years of experience and obtain at least a bachelor's degree in business economics or a related field to be hired.

Associate director vs project director salary

Associate directors and project directors have different pay scales, as shown below.

Associate DirectorProject Director
Average salary$114,223$107,396
Salary rangeBetween $79,000 And $164,000Between $70,000 And $162,000
Highest paying CitySouth San Francisco, CALas Vegas, NV
Highest paying stateNew JerseyNevada
Best paying companyLegalmatch.comFried Frank
Best paying industryPharmaceuticalTechnology

Differences between associate director and project director education

There are a few differences between an associate director and a project director in terms of educational background:

Associate DirectorProject Director
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 66%Bachelor's Degree, 66%
Most common majorBusinessBusiness
Most common collegeUniversity of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Pennsylvania

Associate director vs project director demographics

Here are the differences between associate directors' and project directors' demographics:

Associate DirectorProject Director
Average age4747
Gender ratioMale, 52.0% Female, 48.0%Male, 56.2% Female, 43.8%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 7.5% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 12.6% Asian, 8.9% White, 65.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%Black or African American, 7.5% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 12.5% Asian, 8.8% White, 65.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage10%10%

Differences between associate director and project director duties and responsibilities

Associate director example responsibilities.

  • Lead implementation of OPPE and FPPE for TJC.
  • Manage accounting, weekly reports, local contacts, and maintenance of sets, props, and costumes.
  • Manage all aspects of music ministry - including arranging all music for schedule services special programs and events.
  • Manage departmental training schedules, work schedules and CPSI electronic medical record (EMR), certifications and competencies.
  • Manage web development and rebranding initiative.
  • Create a coordinate university social media committee quadrupling engagement during campaigns and achieving a national twitter trend during commencement.
  • Show more

Project director example responsibilities.

  • Provide direction and guidance to Americas regional executives with all aspects of managing their regions in order to achieve business goals.
  • Manage commercial real estate, adaptive reuse development project.
  • Create, maintain, and manage software development project schedules according to PMI standards.
  • Manage customer service center issues spanning Americas, European, and Asian delivery centers.
  • Refine and develop strong/functional on-site OCI management teams to ensure project EPC objectives are achieve.
  • Manage offshore / onshore test teams through entire SDLC for major, minor and hotfix releases.
  • Show more

Associate director vs project director skills

Common associate director skills
  • Patients, 11%
  • Healthcare, 8%
  • Project Management, 6%
  • Oversight, 6%
  • Portfolio, 6%
  • Excellent Interpersonal, 5%
Common project director skills
  • Project Management, 20%
  • Oversight, 19%
  • Customer Satisfaction, 8%
  • HR, 5%
  • Adaptive, 5%
  • ERP, 4%

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