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Lead product developer vs product management director

The differences between lead product developers and product management directors 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 management director. Additionally, a product management director has an average salary of $156,724, which is higher than the $122,863 average annual salary of a lead product developer.

The top three skills for a lead product developer include lifecycle management, java and product development. The most important skills for a product management director are product management, product strategy, and cloud.

Lead product developer vs product management director overview

Lead Product DeveloperProduct Management Director
Yearly salary$122,863$156,724
Hourly rate$59.07$75.35
Growth rate10%10%
Number of jobs152,976170,460
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 64%Bachelor's Degree, 70%
Average age3939
Years of experience1010

Lead product developer vs product management director salary

Lead product developers and product management directors have different pay scales, as shown below.

Lead Product DeveloperProduct Management Director
Average salary$122,863$156,724
Salary rangeBetween $87,000 And $173,000Between $112,000 And $219,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CASan Francisco, CA
Highest paying stateArizonaCalifornia
Best paying companyMetaMeta
Best paying industryManufacturingTechnology

Differences between lead product developer and product management director education

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

Lead Product DeveloperProduct Management Director
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 64%Bachelor's Degree, 70%
Most common majorMechanical EngineeringBusiness
Most common collegeUniversity of Texas at AustinUniversity of Georgia

Lead product developer vs product management director demographics

Here are the differences between lead product developers' and product management directors' demographics:

Lead Product DeveloperProduct Management Director
Average age3939
Gender ratioMale, 74.3% Female, 25.7%Male, 77.1% Female, 22.9%
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 management director 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 management director example responsibilities.

  • Lead initiatives across broad categories ranging from search engine optimization to promotions and CRM to customer retention.
  • Deploy a highly customize third-party CRM and sales management software, managing $40MM annual ad sales revenue.
  • Manage a team of 8 developers , 3 editors , 1 QA person, and 1 graphic designer.
  • Manage cross-functional projects to integrate new products and features into the roadmap and GTM approach and drive adoption.
  • Manage the product management, business analyst, and UI teams in the development of a new class of EMM applications.
  • Manage the design development process from designer sketch handover to bulk production delivery.
  • Show more

Lead product developer vs product management director skills

Common lead product developer skills
  • Lifecycle Management, 27%
  • Java, 9%
  • Product Development, 8%
  • Project Management, 7%
  • R, 6%
  • Product Management, 3%
Common product management director skills
  • Product Management, 13%
  • Product Strategy, 7%
  • Cloud, 6%
  • Analytics, 5%
  • Market Research, 4%
  • Product Roadmap, 4%

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