How To Become A Benefit Director: What It Is and Career Path

What is a benefit director and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

A benefits director is a leadership individual who plans and manages an organization's health and welfare benefits programs and ensures that the benefits programs follow organizational and legal guidelines and requirements. They plan and direct the implementation and administration of the organization's health and benefits programs such as health insurance, wellness programs, leave policies, disability, and retirement accounts. A benefits director analyzes benefits options, keeps employees informed of these options, and resolves employee issues that may arise regarding benefit policies and procedures. They also ensure that the organization's benefits comply with federal, state, and local legal requirements.

Most benefit directors have a bachelor's or an associate's degree in human resources or a related field, however, an advanced degree is not critical if the individual has related experience and skills. A director should be adept at managing teams, and possess strong communication, interpersonal and organizational skills, and should be comfortable interfacing with upper management, employees, and regulatory bodies.

A benefits director can make up to $106,000 a year in the U.S., and the job field is expected to grow 3% by 2028.

ScoreBenefit DirectorUS Average

Salary

7.9

Avg. Salary $110,567

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.0

Growth rate 2%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.6

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.44%

Asian 7.87%

Black or African American 11.23%

Hispanic or Latino 10.00%

Unknown 3.42%

White 67.04%

Gender

female 60.04%

male 39.96%

Age - 46

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 46

Stress level

6.0

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.6

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.5

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a benefit director

Explore benefit director education requirements

Most common benefit director degrees

Bachelor's

72.6 %

Master's

15.2 %

Associate

6.5 %

Start to develop specific benefit director skills

Skills	Percentages
Human Resources	9.69%
Oversight	6.32%
ERISA	5.33%
Open Enrollment	5.19%
HIPAA	4.85%

Complete relevant benefit director training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New benefit directors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a benefit director based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real benefit director resumes.

Research benefit director duties and responsibilities

Lead project to implement third-party ACA tax form processing for over 30,000 employee records.
Manage relate HRIS systems, software applications for benefit administration.
Lead departmental PeopleSoft projects and initiatives; involve in systems testing when additional system upgrades are implemented.
Implement HIPAA compliant wellness programs, including biometric testing.

Get benefit director experience

Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become a benefit director. The most common roles before becoming a benefit director include benefits manager, human resources manager team lead and director of human resources.

Prepare your benefit director resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your benefit director resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a benefit director resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable benefit director resume templates

Build a professional benefit director resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your benefit director resume.