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

What is a business unit director and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

A business unit director leads a segment or a unit of the company. They are in charge of monitoring the production of their unit, enhancing the skills of their team members, and proactively solving issues before they can occur--all of which to help ensure that the business unit is meeting its daily, monthly, and yearly goals. A business unit director is also primarily responsible for fostering good client relationships. For this reason, a good chunk of their week is spent attending client meetings, making business reports for clients, and attending to client's needs.

In general, most business unit directors have a master's degree in business, marketing, finance, or other similar fields. However, a bachelor's degree may be enough to qualify for this role. It is also a standard for business unit directors to have substantial experience in their line of business, most commonly in a leadership role.

A business director's typical day is spent working in an office and meeting with other people. They may also be expected to travel for work, both locally and abroad, to attend business meetings or conferences. In exchange for these high standards and expectations, a business unit director earns an average salary of $138,000 per year.

ScoreBusiness Unit DirectorUS Average

Salary

8.5

Avg. Salary $135,050

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

9.6

Growth Rate 6%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.47%

Asian 6.41%

Black or African American 6.23%

Hispanic or Latino 15.35%

Unknown 4.34%

White 67.19%

Gender

female 18.20%

male 81.80%

Age - 44

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 - 44

Stress Level

9.6

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

9.2

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

3.6

Work Life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a business unit director

Explore business unit director education requirements

Most common business unit director degrees

Bachelor's

70.6 %

Master's

21.5 %

Associate

4.7 %

Start to develop specific business unit director skills

Skills	Percentages
Project Management	16.78%
Digital Marketing	13.68%
Sigma	13.33%
Business Development	5.58%
Direct Reports	5.13%

Complete relevant business unit director training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New business unit 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 business unit director based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real business unit director resumes.

Research business unit director duties and responsibilities

Manage a portfolio of inpatient and outpatient products market to major academic medical centers, community hospitals and nursing homes.
Manage a portfolio of inpatient and outpatient products market to major academic medical centers, community hospitals and nursing homes.
Increase EBITDA for the division.
Obtain first ISO certification for the production lines.

Get business unit director experience

Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become a business unit director. The most common roles before becoming a business unit director include product manager, program manager team lead and project manager.

Prepare your business unit director resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your business unit 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 business unit director resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

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