Director, special projects vs project administrator

The differences between directors, special projects and project administrators can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a director, special projects has an average salary of $129,916, which is higher than the $52,862 average annual salary of a project administrator.

The top three skills for a director, special projects include project management, website content and financial statements. The most important skills for a project administrator are project management, purchase orders, and customer service.

Director, special projects vs project administrator overview

	Director, Special Projects	Project Administrator
Yearly salary	$129,916	$52,862
Hourly rate	$62.46	$25.41
Growth rate	6%	-8%
Number of jobs	45,103	141,253
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 68%	Bachelor's Degree, 60%
Average age	47	47
Years of experience	-	-

What does a director, special projects do?

The primary responsibility of a director of special projects is to ensure the successful conclusion of construction-related projects. Special project directors lead, organize, and perform corporate projects outside their duties. They utilize project management, business process management, and change management disciplines for timely and cost-effective initiatives delivery. It is part of their responsibilities to collaborate with business leaders and entrepreneurs to perform corporate programs and initiatives. They also manage process enhancements and various special programs.

What does a project administrator do?

A project administrator is an individual who assists the project manager in the preparation, reporting, and analysis of projects. Project administrators are given tasks with administrative responsibilities such as managing the budget for supply orders, coordinating meetings with contractors, and doing site visits. They are involved with hiring staff members for a project and creating employee guidelines based on talents, skills, and abilities. Project administrators are also responsible for providing reports on the project's progress to the top management.

Director, special projects vs project administrator salary

Directors, special projects and project administrators have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Director, Special Projects	Project Administrator
Average salary	$129,916	$52,862
Salary range	Between $91,000 And $185,000	Between $33,000 And $83,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	Baltimore, MD
Highest paying state	Rhode Island	Maryland
Best paying company	Palo Alto Networks	Urban Institute
Best paying industry	Manufacturing	Construction

Differences between director, special projects and project administrator education

There are a few differences between a director, special projects and a project administrator in terms of educational background:

	Director, Special Projects	Project Administrator
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 68%	Bachelor's Degree, 60%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	University of Pennsylvania

Director, special projects vs project administrator demographics

Here are the differences between directors, special projects' and project administrators' demographics:

	Director, Special Projects	Project Administrator
Average age	47	47
Gender ratio	Male, 53.9% Female, 46.1%	Male, 25.0% Female, 75.0%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 7.6% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 12.8% Asian, 8.2% White, 66.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%	Black or African American, 7.7% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 12.9% Asian, 8.9% White, 65.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage	10%	10%

Differences between director, special projects and project administrator duties and responsibilities

Director, special projects example responsibilities.

Manage and design worldwide testing on all ERP interface programs.
Create a coordinate university social media committee quadrupling engagement during campaigns and achieving a national twitter trend during commencement.
Replace RV/Marina management and increase occupancy to require revenue model for proper ROI.
Analyze, develop and implement successful marketing strategies to maximize ROI associate with business acquisition and retention.
Administer volunteer program which include volunteer recruiting, training, oversight of service qualifications and annual awards program.
Draft first agency state sustainability plan, provide oversight of environmental matters for the agency and monitor compliance actions.

Project administrator example responsibilities.

Lead organization in achieving ISO 9000 certification, which lead to future certification under both ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001.
Manage and execute the SharePoint business integration implementation project and become the corporate governance portal administrator.
Manage quality assurance checks for FDA and internal audits which result in no documentation/information error and successful completion of the audits.
Create and execute SQL to query DB2 databases.
Compose, prepare, proofread, edit and publish department correspondence.
Coordinate in creation and execution of QA and testing processes, test strategies and plans.

Director, special projects vs project administrator skills

Common director, special projects skills

Project Management, 14%
Website Content, 10%
Financial Statements, 6%
Strategic Plan, 5%
Strategic Direction, 4%
Oversight, 4%

Common project administrator skills

Project Management, 12%
Purchase Orders, 8%
Customer Service, 7%
PowerPoint, 6%
Data Entry, 5%
Assist Project, 4%

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Director, Special Projects
Director, Special Projects vs Project Administrator

Updated January 8, 2025

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