Principal consultant vs associate director

The differences between principal consultants and associate directors can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a principal consultant has an average salary of $116,478, which is higher than the $114,223 average annual salary of an associate director.

The top three skills for a principal consultant include cloud, business development and C #. The most important skills for an associate director are patients, healthcare, and project management.

Principal consultant vs associate director overview

	Principal Consultant	Associate Director
Yearly salary	$116,478	$114,223
Hourly rate	$56.00	$54.91
Growth rate	11%	8%
Number of jobs	143,753	72,370
Job satisfaction	-	5
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 68%	Bachelor's Degree, 66%
Average age	44	47
Years of experience	-	-

What does a principal consultant do?

A principal consultant is responsible for evaluating business' needs and opportunities, identifying potential leads to create project proposals, and maintaining strong business relationships that would generate revenues and increase the organization's profitability. Principal consultants must be up-to-date with the current market trends to ensure that the business adapts to the industry's changes. They also initiate new product development to expand its brand image, working closely with the marketing team for marketing strategies and promotions.

What does an associate director do?

An associate director oversees the daily activities and business operations within a particular area. They are primarily responsible for devising strategies that aim for growth in profit and customer satisfaction, implementing policies and standards, evaluate the workforce, providing support to various departments, and setting goals in terms of budget and sales. Furthermore, they must regularly report progress to the director and coordinate with managers and supervisors in the joint effort to reach the vision and mission of the company.

Principal consultant vs associate director salary

Principal consultants and associate directors have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Principal Consultant	Associate Director
Average salary	$116,478	$114,223
Salary range	Between $90,000 And $150,000	Between $79,000 And $164,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	South San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	Oregon	New Jersey
Best paying company	Pure Storage	Legalmatch.com
Best paying industry	Finance	Pharmaceutical

Differences between principal consultant and associate director education

There are a few differences between a principal consultant and an associate director in terms of educational background:

	Principal Consultant	Associate Director
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 68%	Bachelor's Degree, 66%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	Western Carolina University	University of Pennsylvania

Principal consultant vs associate director demographics

Here are the differences between principal consultants' and associate directors' demographics:

	Principal Consultant	Associate Director
Average age	44	47
Gender ratio	Male, 75.8% Female, 24.2%	Male, 52.0% Female, 48.0%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 6.4% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 9.4% Asian, 8.8% White, 70.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%	Black or African American, 7.5% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 12.6% Asian, 8.9% White, 65.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage	11%	10%

Differences between principal consultant and associate director duties and responsibilities

Principal consultant example responsibilities.

Manage project risks and issues throughout the SDLC phases, report project/program statuses to steering committee along with financial information.
Provide PMO office support including improving governance processes to achieve expect results.
Manage numerous engagements that are either custom development or package software (ERP) implementations and integration.
Project leadership, strategy and health information management consulting services to healthcare and manage care organizations and health information technology companies.
Design database and business objects using XML schema.
Create XMLType view to generate xml output from a SQL query.

Associate director example responsibilities.

Lead implementation of OPPE and FPPE for TJC.
Manage accounting, weekly reports, local contacts, and maintenance of sets, props, and costumes.
Manage all aspects of music ministry - including arranging all music for schedule services special programs and events.
Manage departmental training schedules, work schedules and CPSI electronic medical record (EMR), certifications and competencies.
Manage web development and rebranding initiative.
Create a coordinate university social media committee quadrupling engagement during campaigns and achieving a national twitter trend during commencement.

Principal consultant vs associate director skills

Common principal consultant skills

Cloud, 11%
Business Development, 10%
C #, 7%
Customer Satisfaction, 6%
Java, 5%
Project Management, 4%

Common associate director skills

Patients, 11%
Healthcare, 8%
Project Management, 6%
Oversight, 6%
Portfolio, 6%
Excellent Interpersonal, 5%

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Principal Consultant vs Associate Director

Updated January 8, 2025

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