How to hire a development officer

How to hire a development officer, step by step

Here's a step-by-step development officer hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a development officer job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new development officer
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a development officer do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you post your development officer job, you should take the time to determine what type of worker your business needs. While certain jobs definitely require a full-time employee, it's sometimes better to find a development officer for hire on a part-time basis or as a contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   A development officer's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, development officers from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   Here's a comparison of development officer salaries for various roles:

   Type of Development Officer	Description	Hourly rate
   Development Officer	Training and development specialists plan, conduct, and administer programs that train employees and improve their skills and knowledge.	$24-58
   Training Supervisor	A training supervisor is an individual tasked to plan the curriculum and prepare lessons for new employees' training. Training supervisors coordinate locations and times for the training and sessions... Show more	$12-25
   Facilitator	A facilitator is responsible for assisting a group event or program, ensuring that the participants coordinate well. Facilitators also monitor that the objectives of the event are smoothly delivered and organized... Show more	$13-33

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Stewardship
   • Alumni
   • Customer Service
   • Patients
   • Business Development
   • Donor Relations
   • Financial Support
   • CRM
   • Professional Development
   • Donor Prospects
   • Donor Database
   • Event Planning
   • Database Management
   • Strategic Plan

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage databases (CRM), as well as executed the opening of bank accounts abroad, for the company.
   • Promote and manage the scholarship program for psychology department students.
   • Manage all aspects of donor prospecting, cultivation, stewardship, and budget/vendor/consultant management for special events and individual giving.
   • Perform data entry and vetting of data, build queries and reports via CRM database.
   • Research ways to use social networking tools such as Facebook to raise visibility and funds.
   • Edit various publications for benefactors, staff and patients as well as wrote for those publications.

   More development officer duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in the development officer job description is a good way to get more applicants. A development officer salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

   For example, the average salary for a development officer in Wisconsin may be lower than in New Jersey, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level development officer. Additionally, a development officer with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

   Average development officer salary

   $78,541yearly

   $37.76 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level development officer salary

   $50,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 18, 2025

   Average development officer salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	New Jersey	$109,883	$53
   2	California	$106,749	$51
   3	Connecticut	$97,767	$47
   4	New York	$91,795	$44
   5	Minnesota	$88,585	$43
   6	Oregon	$86,842	$42
   7	Virginia	$86,394	$42
   8	Maryland	$85,602	$41
   9	Massachusetts	$83,183	$40
   10	District of Columbia	$82,217	$40
   11	Texas	$79,897	$38
   12	North Carolina	$78,181	$38
   13	Maine	$77,302	$37
   14	Michigan	$77,147	$37
   15	Georgia	$75,768	$36
   16	Colorado	$72,176	$35
   17	Florida	$71,270	$34
   18	Utah	$71,146	$34
   19	Pennsylvania	$69,431	$33
   20	Louisiana	$66,129	$32

   Average development officer salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Mayo Clinic	$141,114	$67.84	34
   2	MUFG EMEA	$131,221	$63.09
   3	UBS	$125,943	$60.55	26
   4	Pace University	$125,670	$60.42
   5	Citi	$125,079	$60.13	53
   6	Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center	$119,398	$57.40	2
   7	State Street	$118,140	$56.80	44
   8	JPMorgan Chase & Co.	$117,972	$56.72	199
   9	HSBC Bank	$117,049	$56.27	8
   10	Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc.	$116,570	$56.04	17
   11	Fuhu	$114,230	$54.92
   12	Middlebury College	$98,443	$47.33	2
   13	Bank of America	$97,870	$47.05	115
   14	Sutter Health	$96,941	$46.61	32
   15	City of Los Angeles	$96,396	$46.34	1
   16	Amnesty International USA	$95,881	$46.10
   17	Virginia Housing Development Authority	$95,573	$45.95
   18	Bangor Savings Bank	$92,606	$44.52	4
   19	FHI 360	$92,250	$44.35
   20	Barnstable, Massachusetts	$91,695	$44.08

4. Writing a development officer job description

   A good development officer job description should include a few things:

   • Summary of the role
   • List of responsibilities
   • Required skills and experience

   Including a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager is also appreciated by candidates. Here's an example of a development officer job description:

   Development officer job description example

   + Department: Biology
   
   + School Area: Science
   
   + Employment Type: Full-time (Hybrid)
   
   + Employment Category: Exempt
   
   + Visa Sponsorship Available: No
   
   + Schedule:
   
   Email a Friend Save Save Apply Now
   
   Information on MIT's COVID-19 vaccination requirement can be found at the bottom of this posting.
   
   SENIOR DEVELOPMENT OFFICER, Biology, to manage all elements of development for the department. Responsibilities include acting as primary development advisor to the department head; developing deep understanding of the research conducted across the department; developing and maintaining relationships that maximize engagement and support at each giving level, with an emphasis on individual, major gifts in the amount of $1M+; researching and preparing background information and creating high-level strategy briefings and other communications; working with volunteers to coordinate contact with prospective donors; coordinating solicitation strategies and cultivating donors and prospects in collaboration with others in the School of Science and across MIT; working with development offices across campus to increase corporate engagement; maintaining and expanding annual stewardship plan; alumni relations; planning, composing, and implementing the distribution of marketing/communications materials; maintaining data integrity; providing detailed reports on prospects and donors, analyzing giving trends, and recommending targeted strategies for increasing support; and other duties as needed.
   
   Job Requirements
   
   REQUIRED: bachelor's degree; five years' development experience, including a background in major gift fundraising; initiative; results-orientation; attention to detail; excellent interpersonal and communication skills; discretion with confidential information; comfort navigating complexity and ambiguity; and excellent computer skills, including proficiency with database management systems. Must be able to secure and aggregate information from a variety of sources and synthesize and disseminate complex concepts to a variety of internal/external audiences; balance competing tasks concurrently; work independently and as part of a team; remain flexible and adaptable to change; and generate enthusiasm for department goals. PREFERRED: experience designing and presenting materials for print/digital publication, experience in higher education, and interest/experience in the life sciences. Job #21942-11Must be willing to travel approximately 10% of the time and work occasional evening and weekend events.10/4/22

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   There are a few common ways to find development officers for your business:

   • Promoting internally or recruiting from your existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
   • Attend job fairs at local colleges to meet candidates with the right educational background.
   • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to recruit passive job-seekers.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your development officer job on Zippia to find and recruit development officer candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   To successfully recruit development officers, your first interview needs to engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. You can go into more detail about the company, the role, and the responsibilities during follow-up interviews.

   You should also ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match the ideal candidate profile you developed earlier. Candidates good enough for the next step can complete the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new development officer

   Once you've selected the best development officer candidate for the job, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, this letter should include details about the benefits and perks you offer the candidate. Ensuring that your offer is competitive is essential, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and you should be open to discussion. After you reach an agreement, the final step is formalizing the agreement with a contract.

   It's also important to follow up with applicants who do not get the job with an email letting them know that the position is filled.

   Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new development officer. Human Resources should complete Employee Action Forms and ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc. They should also ensure that new employee files are created for internal recordkeeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire a development officer?