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Federal programs manager vs project director

The differences between federal programs managers and project directors can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a project director has an average salary of $107,396, which is higher than the $67,453 average annual salary of a federal programs manager.

The top three skills for a federal programs manager include program management, federal government and customer satisfaction. The most important skills for a project director are project management, oversight, and customer satisfaction.

Federal programs manager vs project director overview

Federal Programs ManagerProject Director
Yearly salary$67,453$107,396
Hourly rate$32.43$51.63
Growth rate5%-
Number of jobs63,881116,968
Job satisfaction-5
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 62%Bachelor's Degree, 66%
Average age4747
Years of experience--

What does a federal programs manager do?

A federal programs manager's primary responsibility is organizing activities for a company or organization. They help develop program plans, allocate budgets, manage staff, and oversee programs. They review changes to federal, state, or local legislation to ensure that a company's programs adhere to all legal guidelines.

What does a project director do?

A project director is an individual responsible for supervising workers from various departments given specific tasks to complete a given project. They create a budget to complete a job while monitoring the amount of money spent to ensure that overspending is avoided. They provide presentations to investors, business partners, and company executives to inform them about their progress and development. Project directors must have several years of experience and obtain at least a bachelor's degree in business economics or a related field to be hired.

Federal programs manager vs project director salary

Federal programs managers and project directors have different pay scales, as shown below.

Federal Programs ManagerProject Director
Average salary$67,453$107,396
Salary rangeBetween $36,000 And $123,000Between $70,000 And $162,000
Highest paying City-Las Vegas, NV
Highest paying state-Nevada
Best paying company-Fried Frank
Best paying industry-Technology

Differences between federal programs manager and project director education

There are a few differences between a federal programs manager and a project director in terms of educational background:

Federal Programs ManagerProject Director
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 62%Bachelor's Degree, 66%
Most common majorBusinessBusiness
Most common collegeUniversity of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Pennsylvania

Federal programs manager vs project director demographics

Here are the differences between federal programs managers' and project directors' demographics:

Federal Programs ManagerProject Director
Average age4747
Gender ratioMale, 55.6% Female, 44.4%Male, 56.2% Female, 43.8%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 7.9% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 13.3% Asian, 7.9% White, 65.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%Black or African American, 7.5% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 12.5% Asian, 8.8% White, 65.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage10%10%

Differences between federal programs manager and project director duties and responsibilities

Federal programs manager example responsibilities.

  • Specialize in video collaboration technologies - multi-class Audio/Video bridging, manage video services and cloud video solutions.
  • Develop statements of work and formulate RFQ and RFP responses.
  • Create processes for RFP opportunity / identification and bid response, capture design, and billing.
  • Support diverse projects for international sales, science and technology, logistics, emergency management response, and mobile networks/applications.
  • Evangelize virtualization security awareness and compliance issues around transforming physical servers to virtual servers.

Project director example responsibilities.

  • Provide direction and guidance to Americas regional executives with all aspects of managing their regions in order to achieve business goals.
  • Manage commercial real estate, adaptive reuse development project.
  • Create, maintain, and manage software development project schedules according to PMI standards.
  • Manage customer service center issues spanning Americas, European, and Asian delivery centers.
  • Refine and develop strong/functional on-site OCI management teams to ensure project EPC objectives are achieve.
  • Manage offshore / onshore test teams through entire SDLC for major, minor and hotfix releases.
  • Show more

Federal programs manager vs project director skills

Common federal programs manager skills
  • Program Management, 30%
  • Federal Government, 30%
  • Customer Satisfaction, 6%
  • DOD, 4%
  • OSHA, 4%
  • PMO, 4%
Common project director skills
  • Project Management, 20%
  • Oversight, 19%
  • Customer Satisfaction, 8%
  • HR, 5%
  • Adaptive, 5%
  • ERP, 4%

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