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Lead product developer vs associate product manager

The differences between lead product developers and associate product managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 8-10 years to become both a lead product developer and an associate product manager. Additionally, a lead product developer has an average salary of $122,863, which is higher than the $89,963 average annual salary of an associate product manager.

The top three skills for a lead product developer include lifecycle management, java and product development. The most important skills for an associate product manager are product management, project management, and user stories.

Lead product developer vs associate product manager overview

Lead Product DeveloperAssociate Product Manager
Yearly salary$122,863$89,963
Hourly rate$59.07$43.25
Growth rate10%10%
Number of jobs152,976107,763
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 64%Bachelor's Degree, 80%
Average age3939
Years of experience1010

Lead product developer vs associate product manager salary

Lead product developers and associate product managers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Lead Product DeveloperAssociate Product Manager
Average salary$122,863$89,963
Salary rangeBetween $87,000 And $173,000Between $65,000 And $122,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CASan Francisco, CA
Highest paying stateArizonaCalifornia
Best paying companyMetaMeta
Best paying industryManufacturingStart-up

Differences between lead product developer and associate product manager education

There are a few differences between a lead product developer and an associate product manager in terms of educational background:

Lead Product DeveloperAssociate Product Manager
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 64%Bachelor's Degree, 80%
Most common majorMechanical EngineeringBusiness
Most common collegeUniversity of Texas at AustinUniversity of Georgia

Lead product developer vs associate product manager demographics

Here are the differences between lead product developers' and associate product managers' demographics:

Lead Product DeveloperAssociate Product Manager
Average age3939
Gender ratioMale, 74.3% Female, 25.7%Male, 45.0% Female, 55.0%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 3.0% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 8.7% Asian, 8.2% White, 74.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%Black or African American, 3.0% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 8.7% Asian, 8.2% White, 74.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage10%10%

Differences between lead product developer and associate product manager duties and responsibilities

Lead product developer example responsibilities.

  • Manage development resources among development, QA, support, documentation, sales and marketing.
  • Manage projects build on technologies including .NET, C++, H.264 video, PHP and AJAX, JavaScript.
  • Target select electrical engineer database to yield increase and additional sales leads.
  • Used Redgate API to create tools for syncing data across databases.
  • Coordinate efforts among vendors to determine the mutual requirements and to define API.
  • Utilize SQL to support data-driven analysis and decision processes to inform project prioritization, assess feature effectiveness, and troubleshoot issues.
  • Show more

Associate product manager example responsibilities.

  • Manage e-commerce packaging program, displays and packaging.
  • Lead a cross-functional team to launch the diabetes monitoring product.
  • Manage seven brand categories in the livestock feed and pet feed industries
  • Manage POS analysis to build sales tools, identify trends, and report performance.
  • Manage cross-functional teams to develop and produce new product for Chinese, UK and European markets.
  • Manage the department of a medical diabetes blood glucose manufacturing leader of visual blood glucose test strips.
  • Show more

Lead product developer vs associate product manager skills

Common lead product developer skills
  • Lifecycle Management, 27%
  • Java, 9%
  • Product Development, 8%
  • Project Management, 7%
  • R, 6%
  • Product Management, 3%
Common associate product manager skills
  • Product Management, 9%
  • Project Management, 6%
  • User Stories, 5%
  • Market Research, 5%
  • PowerPoint, 4%
  • Customer Service, 4%

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