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The differences between business unit leaders and functional leads can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 4-6 years to become both a business unit leader and a functional lead. Additionally, a functional lead has an average salary of $113,422, which is higher than the $111,361 average annual salary of a business unit leader.
The top three skills for a business unit leader include continuous improvement, quality standards and lean manufacturing. The most important skills for a functional lead are ERP, client facing, and enterprise solutions.
| Business Unit Leader | Functional Lead | |
| Yearly salary | $111,361 | $113,422 |
| Hourly rate | $53.54 | $54.53 |
| Growth rate | 6% | 9% |
| Number of jobs | 88,824 | 33,917 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 73% | Bachelor's Degree, 64% |
| Average age | 44 | 43 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 6 |
A Business Unit Leader manages growth initiatives such as future acquisition opportunities, strategic partnerships, and organic innovation. These professionals control strategy deployment to ensure operational productivity and economy. They offer this service to sites focusing on Human Resources, Information Technology, Lead Operation, Lean Accounting, Lead Process, Strategic Pricing, and more. Business Unit Leaders also lead by promoting talent management, counseling, team concepts, individual development, training, coaching, mentoring, and retaining. They develop and manage the business unit department budget and strategic plan.
Functional leads are professionals who analyze business requirements and provide system design while implementing system solutions for various business initiatives. These professionals must work with clients and internal stakeholders to identify and understand the functional or business requirements. They must analyze and solve complex system problems so that they can improve the organization's overall Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) development and support process. Functional leads must also facilitate a team to design document control procedures that can significantly reduce process cycle time and cost.
Business unit leaders and functional leads have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Business Unit Leader | Functional Lead | |
| Average salary | $111,361 | $113,422 |
| Salary range | Between $64,000 And $191,000 | Between $85,000 And $149,000 |
| Highest paying City | Washington, DC | Sunnyvale, CA |
| Highest paying state | New York | California |
| Best paying company | Goldman Sachs | Airbnb |
| Best paying industry | Manufacturing | Retail |
There are a few differences between a business unit leader and a functional lead in terms of educational background:
| Business Unit Leader | Functional Lead | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 73% | Bachelor's Degree, 64% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | University of Pennsylvania | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between business unit leaders' and functional leads' demographics:
| Business Unit Leader | Functional Lead | |
| Average age | 44 | 43 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 81.1% Female, 18.9% | Male, 68.1% Female, 31.9% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 6.1% Unknown, 4.3% Hispanic or Latino, 15.0% Asian, 6.3% White, 67.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5% | Black or African American, 8.4% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 9.5% Asian, 24.9% White, 52.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 10% | 8% |