Data operations director vs data manager

The differences between data operations directors and data managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 6-8 years to become both a data operations director and a data manager. Additionally, a data operations director has an average salary of $150,529, which is higher than the $108,359 average annual salary of a data manager.

The top three skills for a data operations director include tableau, visualization and project management. The most important skills for a data manager are data analysis, visualization, and data quality.

Data operations director vs data manager overview

	Data Operations Director	Data Manager
Yearly salary	$150,529	$108,359
Hourly rate	$72.37	$52.10
Growth rate	16%	16%
Number of jobs	133,372	147,574
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 66%	Bachelor's Degree, 62%
Average age	47	47
Years of experience	8	8

What does a data operations director do?

A data operations director is responsible for managing the company's database and ensure the safety and security of all the data to prevent unauthorized access and information risk. Data operations directors coordinate with data engineers to design systems that would support business functions and operations. They also implement data handling procedures to organize data accurately and properly dispose of outdated ones. A data operations director reports all system failures and leads network infrastructures to improve the performance of data systems.

What does a data manager do?

A data manager is responsible for monitoring the efficiency of the company's technology systems and network infrastructures. Data managers ensure the safety and security of the databases to avoid unauthorized access that may pose risks for business operations. They assist the technology team in developing data management protocols and smooth navigation of the network systems. A data manager must have excellent knowledge of the technology industry, as well as having a strong command on system codes and programming languages, to immediately identify inconsistencies, and perform troubleshooting to fix these discrepancies.

Data operations director vs data manager salary

Data operations directors and data managers have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Data Operations Director	Data Manager
Average salary	$150,529	$108,359
Salary range	Between $104,000 And $217,000	Between $73,000 And $160,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	California	California
Best paying company	Rubicon Global	Meta
Best paying industry	Technology	-

Differences between data operations director and data manager education

There are a few differences between a data operations director and a data manager in terms of educational background:

	Data Operations Director	Data Manager
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 66%	Bachelor's Degree, 62%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	Carnegie Mellon University	Carnegie Mellon University

Data operations director vs data manager demographics

Here are the differences between data operations directors' and data managers' demographics:

	Data Operations Director	Data Manager
Average age	47	47
Gender ratio	Male, 68.3% Female, 31.7%	Male, 48.0% Female, 52.0%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 6.6% Unknown, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino, 10.0% Asian, 12.7% White, 65.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%	Black or African American, 6.6% Unknown, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino, 9.9% Asian, 12.7% White, 65.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage	11%	11%

Differences between data operations director and data manager duties and responsibilities

Data operations director example responsibilities.

Lead account through server refresh, server monitoring and path toward server virtualization.
Champion, foster and lead an initiative to migrate core systems from proprietary UNIX to Linux.
Introduce and lead the implementation of virtualization technologies throughout the organization.
Manage large multisite datacenter environment consisting of mainframe and open systems.
Lead team responsible for design of private/public cloud environment supporting widely distribute engineering resources.
Manage contract information for provisioning feasibility and establish reporting statistics to track completion of orders for the department.

Data manager example responsibilities.

Manage all Salesforce customer tech support inquiries.
Use of SalesForce and CRM for leads tracking.
Manage internal department & team initiatives including QA and documentation work.
Manage the profiling and cleansing of legacy data to new data structures.
Manage and lead scrum meetings for both reporting and commissioning development teams.
Manage CRO trials from selection, statement of work, through database lock.

Data operations director vs data manager skills

Common data operations director skills

Tableau, 15%
Visualization, 13%
Project Management, 9%
SAS, 7%
Direct Reports, 6%
ROI, 6%

Common data manager skills

Data Analysis, 7%
Visualization, 6%
Data Quality, 6%
Data Collection, 4%
Project Management, 4%
Patients, 4%

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Data Operations Director
Data Operations Director vs Data Manager

Updated January 8, 2025

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