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Lead product developer vs product line manager

The differences between lead product developers and product line 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 a product line manager. Additionally, a lead product developer has an average salary of $122,863, which is higher than the $97,237 average annual salary of a product line manager.

The top three skills for a lead product developer include lifecycle management, java and product development. The most important skills for a product line manager are product management, customer service, and PLM.

Lead product developer vs product line manager overview

Lead Product DeveloperProduct Line Manager
Yearly salary$122,863$97,237
Hourly rate$59.07$46.75
Growth rate10%10%
Number of jobs152,976158,908
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 64%Bachelor's Degree, 72%
Average age3939
Years of experience1010

Lead product developer vs product line manager salary

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

Lead Product DeveloperProduct Line Manager
Average salary$122,863$97,237
Salary rangeBetween $87,000 And $173,000Between $52,000 And $178,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CASan Francisco, CA
Highest paying stateArizonaCalifornia
Best paying companyMetaON Semiconductor
Best paying industryManufacturingEnergy

Differences between lead product developer and product line manager education

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

Lead Product DeveloperProduct Line Manager
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 64%Bachelor's Degree, 72%
Most common majorMechanical EngineeringBusiness
Most common collegeUniversity of Texas at AustinUniversity of Georgia

Lead product developer vs product line manager demographics

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

Lead Product DeveloperProduct Line Manager
Average age3939
Gender ratioMale, 74.3% Female, 25.7%Male, 78.8% Female, 21.2%
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 product line 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

Product line manager example responsibilities.

  • Lead Sr. VP staff to define a business partner program.
  • Hire 35 RN's as well to manage Alere business to support their CHF program.
  • Lead cross-functional team in pioneering the application/game download ecosystem with the implementation of Java games and generating significant new revenue stream.
  • Discuss various cloud base and on prem solution options to host the controller software.
  • Utilize SQL to support data-driven analysis and decision processes to inform project prioritization, assess feature effectiveness, and troubleshoot issues.
  • Develop and implement the comprehensive GTM and marketing plans.
  • Show more

Lead product developer vs product line manager skills

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

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