Your boss sees a new product launched by the company and finds it very satisfying, but does he/she know who designed it? It is you, the design manager. Besides conducting successful meetings with new clients, you have to use your artistic nature to bring smart innovations to the market. No one is more creative and innovative than the design manager in the company. You are the root cause of the success of any new project. On average, you can earn up to $46.72 per hour, while working full office hours.

Usually, a bachelor's degree is a must for design managers. Suppose you can show some creativity to a company. In that case, you are good to go as you'll give lots of presentations to provide insight into your ideas. It is essential for you to have a firm grip on various design and presentation software.

For any company, clients are their most valuable assets. You can make healthy relationships between the company and the clients and prove yourself to be very beneficial for the company. So many new customers can be made, courtesy of your new ideas implemented in the products. Behind every successful product, there is the talented hand of the design manager. You have the capability to take your company to new heights of success.

What Does a Design Manager Do

There are certain skills that many design managers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed math skills, organizational skills and detail oriented.

Learn more about what a Design Manager does

How To Become a Design Manager

If you're interested in becoming a design manager, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 62.5% of design managers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 10.0% of design managers have master's degrees. Even though most design managers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Design Manager

Design Manager Career Paths

Average Salary for a Design Manager

Design Managers in America make an average salary of $102,637 per year or $49 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $150,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $69,000 per year.
Average Design Manager Salary
$102,637 Yearly
$49.34 hourly

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Roles and Types of Design Manager

The role of a design manager includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general design manager responsibilities:

  • The ebay selling design team has an opening for an exceptional design manager to lead a team who are actively re-visioning our consumer selling experience. The ideal candidate would demonstrate an ability to enable teams to deliver artfully crafted, simple, engaging
  • Manage multiple aspects of client, team
  • Conduct meetings with owner, stakeholders, designers

There are several types of design manager, including:

Engineering Manager

Role:

An engineering manager leads a team of engineers and supervises their work, developing solutions to better technology. Collaborating with scientists and technicians, he/she or she will coordinate machine design, civil project plans, production, and quality control.

Engineering managers typically work on a project basis and are responsible for successful implementation. They create project budgets and make sure the work flows smoothlyl delegating tasks, hiring, and training employees for their team, if they see fit. They create progress reports on the work as well.

The work of engineers affects our lives in every possible area. From Ferris wheels to space shuttles, from interactive television to audiovisual special effects, comfy shoes, and waterslides, engineers were always behind the magic, supervised by an engineering manager.

  • Average Salary: $139,328
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Project Engineering Manager

Role:

Project Engineering Managers are responsible for managing and directing the people working on specific projects such as drafters, design engineers, and technical engineers. He/She develops, implements, and evaluates complex designs. He/She also supervises product construction and testing to ensure project completion effectively and efficiently. Apart from this, he/she reviews and verifies changes that would affect the budget, schedule, or scope of a project.

Employers often require a bachelor's degree in engineering or a related field for this job. Some even prefer certification as a licensed professional engineer. Additionally, they require at least three years of work experience in a related field. Applicants must be conversant with engineering principles and methods and must be proficient in engineering software like AutoCAD. Also, they must possess communication, technical writing, problem-solving, project management, and critical thinking skills. Applicants must know the applicable government laws and regulations. The salary of a Project Engineering Manager ranges from $124,034 to $160,392, with an average gross salary of $142,581.

  • Average Salary: $110,534
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Engineering Director

Role:

Engineering directors are tasked with running all the engineering activities and projects within an organization. They ensure their alignment with the set policies and objectives of the organization. They consult the management, production, and marketing staff to define the requirements and procedures for a project. Similarly, they examine the technology, organizational resources, and market demand to devise procedures for the project. Besides that, they monitor work schedules and cash flows, including working with different teams. Also, they oversee the installation, testing, operation, maintenance, and repair of facilities and equipment.

To become an engineering director, you need a minimum of a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, or a related discipline. You need eight or more years of relevant work experience. You must possess communication, critical thinking, analytical, and organization skills. These directors earn $193,118 on average annually. Their salary is between $143,000 and $261,000.

  • Average Salary: $162,252
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

States With The Most Design Manager Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active design manager jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where design managers earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Design Manager Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1California4,618$129,024
2Texas1,758$106,131
3New York1,244$98,521
4Washington1,038$116,596
5Florida952$77,517
6Massachusetts944$104,715
7Virginia846$93,447
8Illinois830$95,065
9Pennsylvania752$101,186
10North Carolina696$92,439
11Georgia680$89,808
12Michigan667$100,678
13Ohio632$94,024
14Oregon587$106,349
15Minnesota551$89,766
16Arizona518$117,883
17Colorado510$81,374
18Maryland505$95,735
19New Jersey483$104,273
20Wisconsin407$96,569
21Indiana395$86,207
22Missouri320$82,971
23Connecticut301$95,326
24Tennessee289$85,509
25Utah281$87,431
26Alabama253$91,877
27South Carolina246$91,552
28Iowa225$85,094
29Kansas191$78,548
30Kentucky189$88,361
31New Hampshire135$114,038
32Nevada123$106,536
33Idaho122$102,039
34Arkansas119$77,055
35Oklahoma117$82,444
36Nebraska114$84,830
37New Mexico105$83,277
38Louisiana101$107,218
39Delaware98$93,750
40Maine93$91,268
41Rhode Island92$99,029
42Montana81$95,871
43West Virginia76$89,203
44Mississippi72$77,859
45Vermont70$85,527
46North Dakota58$86,027
47Alaska56$94,677
48Hawaii55$75,780
49South Dakota53$77,402
50Wyoming45$76,676

Design Manager Education

Design Manager Majors

10.6 %

Design Manager Degrees

Bachelors

62.5 %

Associate

20.5 %

Masters

10.0 %

Top Colleges for Design Managers

1. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Ann Arbor, MI • Private

In-State Tuition

$15,262

Enrollment

30,079

2. Georgia Institute of Technology

Atlanta, GA • Private

In-State Tuition

$12,424

Enrollment

15,201

3. University of Southern California

Los Angeles, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$56,225

Enrollment

19,548

4. Cornell University

Ithaca, NY • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,188

Enrollment

15,105

5. University of Washington

Seattle, WA • Private

In-State Tuition

$11,207

Enrollment

30,905

6. Pennsylvania State University

University Park, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$18,454

Enrollment

40,108

7. Northwestern University

Evanston, IL • Private

In-State Tuition

$54,568

Enrollment

8,451

8. University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,584

Enrollment

10,764

9. University of Texas at Austin

Austin, TX • Private

In-State Tuition

$10,610

Enrollment

40,329

10. Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,465

Enrollment

6,483

Top Skills For a Design Manager

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 7.8% of design managers listed sketch on their resume, but soft skills such as math skills and organizational skills are important as well.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Design Manager Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Design Manager templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Design Manager resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

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Design Manager diversity

Design Manager Gender Distribution

Male
Male
64%
Female
Female
36%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among design managers, 36.2% of them are women, while 63.8% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among design managers is White, which makes up 71.5% of all design managers.

  • The most common foreign language among design managers is Spanish at 40.5%.

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Best States For a Design Manager

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a design manager. The best states for people in this position are California, Arizona, Washington, and New Hampshire. Design managers make the most in California with an average salary of $129,024. Whereas in Arizona and Washington, they would average $117,883 and $116,596, respectively. While design managers would only make an average of $114,038 in New Hampshire, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. California

Total Design Manager Jobs: 4,618
Highest 10% Earn:
$202,000
Location Quotient:
1.89

2. Washington

Total Design Manager Jobs: 1,038
Highest 10% Earn:
$182,000
Location Quotient:
1.7

3. Arizona

Total Design Manager Jobs: 518
Highest 10% Earn:
$185,000
Location Quotient:
1.06
Full List Of Best States For Design Managers

How Do Design Managers Rate Their Jobs?

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Top Design Manager Employers

We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ design managers and discovered their number of design manager opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Salesforce was the best, especially with an average salary of $114,678. European Wax Center follows up with an average salary of $92,955, and then comes Texas Instruments with an average of $155,597. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a design manager. The employers include Deloitte, CDM Smith, and General Motors

Most Common Employers For Design Manager

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1Meta$200,744$96.5143
2Apple$182,598$87.7962
3Texas Instruments$155,597$74.8181
4Micron Technology$153,251$73.6819
5Starbucks$148,416$71.3542
6Intel$144,463$69.4531
7Walmart$142,003$68.2719
8Workiva$132,946$63.9218
9Motorola Solutions$125,727$60.4518
10AT&T$122,211$58.7618

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