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Lead product developer vs product manager

The differences between lead product developers and 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 a product manager. Additionally, a lead product developer has an average salary of $122,863, which is higher than the $111,729 average annual salary of a product manager.

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

Lead product developer vs product manager overview

Lead Product DeveloperProduct Manager
Yearly salary$122,863$111,729
Hourly rate$59.07$53.72
Growth rate10%10%
Number of jobs152,976125,678
Job satisfaction-5
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 64%Bachelor's Degree, 72%
Average age3939
Years of experience1010

Lead product developer vs product manager salary

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

Lead Product DeveloperProduct Manager
Average salary$122,863$111,729
Salary rangeBetween $87,000 And $173,000Between $81,000 And $152,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CASan Francisco, CA
Highest paying stateArizonaCalifornia
Best paying companyMetaMeta
Best paying industryManufacturingRetail

Differences between lead product developer and product manager education

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

Lead Product DeveloperProduct 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 manager demographics

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

Lead Product DeveloperProduct Manager
Average age3939
Gender ratioMale, 74.3% Female, 25.7%Male, 65.3% Female, 34.7%
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 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 manager example responsibilities.

  • Lead collaborative efforts within the PMO, vendors, customers, and internal stakeholders.
  • Manage developers accountable for coding, database development, UI implementation, and system architecture.
  • Manage inventory service levels / overstocks /defective inventory and supplier buy-in opportunities to maximize ROI.
  • Lead customization of the company's administrative SaaS software solution by defining features and functionality for internal/external stakeholder teams.
  • Lead weekly meetings between engineering, sales/marketing, and QA departments to facilitate communication, collaboration and resolution of product issues.
  • Handle design and specification of administration system requirements to efficiently manage, operate, and support client API configurations and sessions.
  • Show more

Lead product developer vs 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 product manager skills
  • Product Management, 11%
  • QA, 5%
  • Product Strategy, 5%
  • Project Management, 4%
  • Market Research, 4%
  • User Stories, 4%

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