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The differences between problem managers and technical managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 6-8 years to become a problem manager, becoming a technical manager takes usually requires 1-2 years. Additionally, a technical manager has an average salary of $116,619, which is higher than the $79,324 average annual salary of a problem manager.
The top three skills for a problem manager include infrastructure, RCA and identify trends. The most important skills for a technical manager are project management, infrastructure, and architecture.
| Problem Manager | Technical Manager | |
| Yearly salary | $79,324 | $116,619 |
| Hourly rate | $38.14 | $56.07 |
| Growth rate | 16% | 8% |
| Number of jobs | 75,250 | 116,732 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 60% | Bachelor's Degree, 61% |
| Average age | 47 | 40 |
| Years of experience | 8 | 2 |
Problem Managers are responsible for managing a problem's lifecycle with the primary goal of either to minimize an incident's impact or to prevent an incident from happening. Their duties include undertaking problem registrations, performing problem prioritizations, conducting problem investigation, and implementing problem control. Besides that, they are involved in coordinating error reviews, managing problem closures as well as carry out root cause analysis in problem identifications. Problem managers also produce incident reports, execute preventative actions, and create a feedback loop to find correlations and causations of problems that occurred.
A technical manager is responsible for maintaining the company's information systems database and analyzing technology system matters to ensure its efficiency and accuracy in supporting business operations. Technical managers perform network checks regularly to assess any possible malfunctions that might compromise the company's cybersecurity. They carefully analyze business and clients' specifications on working with systems integration, responding to end-users' concerns and inquiries. A technical manager must have excellent knowledge of the information technology systems industry, as well as a strong command on network codes to conduct adjustments and manage network infrastructure.
Problem managers and technical managers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Problem Manager | Technical Manager | |
| Average salary | $79,324 | $116,619 |
| Salary range | Between $53,000 And $116,000 | Between $84,000 And $161,000 |
| Highest paying City | - | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | - | California |
| Best paying company | - | A.T. Kearney |
| Best paying industry | - | Manufacturing |
There are a few differences between a problem manager and a technical manager in terms of educational background:
| Problem Manager | Technical Manager | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 60% | Bachelor's Degree, 61% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Carnegie Mellon University | Carnegie Mellon University |
Here are the differences between problem managers' and technical managers' demographics:
| Problem Manager | Technical Manager | |
| Average age | 47 | 40 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 68.7% Female, 31.3% | Male, 83.7% Female, 16.3% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 6.7% Unknown, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino, 10.0% Asian, 13.2% White, 64.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | Black or African American, 8.0% Unknown, 5.6% Hispanic or Latino, 14.6% Asian, 6.4% White, 65.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 11% | 14% |