How to hire a Product Manager

Product manager hiring summary. Here are some key points about hiring product managers in the United States:

HR departments typically spend 15% of their expenses on recruitment.
It usually takes about 12 weeks for a new employee to reach full productivity levels.
It typically takes 36-42 days to fill a job opening.
The median cost to hire a product manager is $1,633.
Small businesses spend an average of $1,105 per product manager on training each year, while large companies spend $658.
There are currently 43,603 product managers in the US and 125,678 job openings.
New York, NY, has the highest demand for product managers, with 471 job openings.
New York, NY has the highest concentration of product managers.

How to hire a product manager, step by step

To hire a product manager, you should clearly understand the skills and experience you are looking for in a candidate, and allocate a budget for the position. You will also need to post and promote the job opening to reach potential candidates. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to hire a product manager:

Here's a step-by-step product manager hiring guide:

Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
Step 3: Make a budget
Step 4: Write a product manager job description
Step 5: Post your job
Step 6: Interview candidates
Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new product manager
Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a Product Manager do?

A product manager is responsible for ensuring product development, providing the best marketing strategies, and effectively handling the sales and marketing team. Product managers' duties include monitoring the market trends and conditions, identifying business opportunities and plan initiatives, and collaborating the product launch process with the appropriate departments. A product manager is also responsible for generating ideas on improving product features, determining timetables and reasonable pricing, and analyzing product sales. A product manager must have excellent strategic and decision-making skills to contribute to its growth and profitability.

Learn more about the specifics of what a product manager does

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Identify your hiring needs

First, determine the employments status of the product manager you need to hire. Certain product manager roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

Determine Employee vs Contractor Status

Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

A product manager's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, product managers from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

The following list breaks down different types of product managers and their corresponding salaries.

Type Of Product Manager	Description	Hourly Rate
Product Manager	Advertising, promotions, and marketing managers plan programs to generate interest in products or services. They work with art directors, sales agents, and financial staff members.	$38-73
Vice President Product Development	A vice president for product development is responsible for leading the product development team in the execution of development activities to enhance the product's brand image in the market and achieve the sales performance target. Vice presidents for product development monitor the product development techniques from the conceptualization to the final execution and market release... Show More	$52-124
Director Of Product Development	A Director of Product Development supervises and implements product development policies, initiatives, and objectives. They conduct market research to determine consumer needs and identify competitors.	$48-94

Create an ideal candidate profile
Common Skills:
- Product Management
- QA
- Product Strategy
- Project Management
- Market Research
- User Stories
- Regression
- Product Roadmap
- User Experience
- Scrum
- Product Specifications
- Product Vision
- Customer Service
- Product Development
Check All Skills
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.
More Product Manager duties

Make a budget

Including a salary range in your product manager job description helps attract top candidates to the position. A product manager salary can be affected by several factors, such as geography, experience, seniority, certifications, and the prestige of the hiring company.

For example, the average salary for a product manager in Missouri may be lower than in California, and an entry-level product manager usually earns less than a senior-level product manager. Additionally, a product manager with certifications may command a higher salary, and working for a well-known company or start-up may also impact an employee's pay.

Average product manager salary

$111,729yearly

$53.72 hourly rate

Entry-level product manager salary

$81,000 yearly salary

Updated May 17, 2025

Average product manager salary by state

Rank	State	Avg. Salary	Hourly Rate
1	California	$132,367	$64
2	Washington	$107,963	$52
3	New York	$105,696	$51
4	New Jersey	$100,187	$48
5	District of Columbia	$99,221	$48
6	Arizona	$96,742	$47
7	Massachusetts	$96,607	$46
8	Virginia	$96,573	$46
9	Connecticut	$95,450	$46
10	Pennsylvania	$95,070	$46
11	Texas	$92,776	$45
12	North Carolina	$89,623	$43
13	Minnesota	$87,456	$42
14	Illinois	$87,141	$42
15	Utah	$87,095	$42
16	Wisconsin	$86,908	$42
17	Ohio	$86,259	$41
18	Indiana	$84,586	$41
19	Georgia	$83,731	$40
20	Colorado	$82,450	$40

Average product manager salary by company

Rank	Company	Average Salary	Hourly Rate	Job Openings
1	Meta	$174,262	$83.78	977
2	Airbnb	$170,677	$82.06	18
3	Roku	$169,269	$81.38	21
4	Credit Karma	$165,608	$79.62	2
5	Netflix	$165,348	$79.49	56
6	Lyft	$164,052	$78.87	21
7	The Walt Disney Company	$162,460	$78.11	96
8	ByteDance	$162,278	$78.02	23
9	BitGo	$161,570	$77.68	4
10	Thrive Global	$160,957	$77.38
11	Crunchbase	$160,581	$77.20
12	Brex	$159,775	$76.81	39
13	Waymo	$159,727	$76.79	6
14	Mixpanel	$159,314	$76.59	6
15	Yelp	$159,207	$76.54	5
16	Google	$159,092	$76.49	349
17	Penske Media	$157,786	$75.86	1
18	Flexport	$157,638	$75.79
19	Pure Storage	$155,841	$74.92	12
20	StubHub	$155,453	$74.74	5

Writing a Product Manager Job Description
A good product manager job description should include a few things:
- Summary of the role
- List of responsibilities
- Required skills and experience
Including a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager is also appreciated by candidates. Here's an example of a product manager job description:
Product Manager job description example
Minimum qualifications:

+ Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.

+ 4 years of experience in product management, consulting, co-founder or related technical role.

+ 2 years of experience building and shipping technical products.

Preferred qualifications:

+ Master's degree or PhD in a technology or business related field.

+ 3 years of experience in a business function or role (e.g., strategic marketing, business operations, consulting).

+ 3 years of experience in a role preparing and delivering technical presentations to senior leadership.

+ 2 years of experience in software development or engineering.

+ 2 years of experience working cross-functionally with engineering, UX/UI, sales finance, and other stakeholders.

+ 1 year of experience in technical leadership. Experience with any of the following: HD Maps; geospatial, navigation or mapping technology; routing; logistics or shipping.

At Google, we put our users first. The world is always changing, so we need Product Managers who are continuously adapting and excited to work on products that affect millions of people every day.

In this role, you will work cross-functionally to guide products from conception to launch by connecting the technical and business worlds. You can break down complex problems into steps that drive product development.

One of the many reasons Google consistently brings innovative, world-changing products to market is because of the collaborative work we do in Product Management. Our team works closely with creative engineers, designers, marketers, etc. to help design and develop technologies that improve access to the world's information. We're responsible for guiding products throughout the execution cycle, focusing specifically on analyzing, positioning, packaging, promoting, and tailoring our solutions to our users.

The Geo team is focused on building the most accurate, comprehensive, and useful maps for our users, through products like Maps, Earth, Street View, Google Maps Platform, and more. Every month, more than a billion people rely on Maps services to explore the world and navigate their daily lives.

The Geo team also enables developers to use the power of Google Maps platforms to enhance their apps and websites. As they plot a course for the future of mapping, they are solving complex computer science problems, designing beautiful and intuitive product experiences, and improving our understanding of the real world.

+ Understand markets, competition, and user requirements in depth.

+ Launch new products and features, test their performance, and iterate quickly.

+ Work collaboratively with engineering, marketing, legal, UX, and other teams on cutting edge technologies.

+ Develop solutions to problems by collaborating as needed across regions, product areas, and functions.
Post your job
There are a few common ways to find product managers for your business:
- Promoting internally or recruiting from your existing workforce.
- Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
- Attend job fairs at local colleges to meet candidates with the right educational background.
- Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to recruit passive job-seekers.
Post your job online:
- Post your product manager job on Zippia to find and attract quality product manager candidates.
- Use niche websites such as swipe files, exit five, marketinghire, american marketing association.
- Post a job on free websites.
Interview candidates
Your first interview with product manager candidates should focus on their interest in the role and background experience. As the hiring process goes on, you can learn more about how they'd fit into the company culture in later rounds of interviews.
It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents. You can move on to the technical interview if a candidate is good enough for the next step.
The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.
Send a job offer and onboard your new product manager
Once you've selected the best product manager candidate for the job, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, this letter should include details about the benefits and perks you offer the candidate. Ensuring that your offer is competitive is essential, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and you should be open to discussion. After you reach an agreement, the final step is formalizing the agreement with a contract.
It's also good etiquette to follow up with applicants who don't get the job by sending them an email letting them know that the position has been filled.
To prepare for the new employee's start date, you can create an onboarding schedule and complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9 forms, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Human Resources should also ensure that a new employee file is created.
Go through the hiring process checklist
- Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
- Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
- Define job responsibilities and requirements
- Establish budget and timeline
- Determine hiring decision makers for the role
- Write job description
- Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
- Promote the job internally
- Process applications through applicant tracking system
- Review resumes and cover letters
- Shortlist candidates for screening
- Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
- Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
- Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
- Conduct background checks on top candidates
- Check references of top candidates
- Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
- Extend offer to top candidate(s)
- Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
- Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
- Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
- Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)
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How much does it cost to hire a product manager?

Hiring a product manager comes with both the one-time cost per hire and ongoing costs. The cost of recruiting product managers involves promoting the job and spending time conducting interviews. Ongoing costs include employee salary, training, benefits, insurance, and equipment. It is essential to consider the cost of product manager recruiting as well the ongoing costs of maintaining the new employee.

You can expect to pay around $111,729 per year for a product manager, as this is the median yearly salary nationally. This can vary depending on what state or city you're hiring in. If you're hiring for contract work or on a per-project basis, hourly rates for product managers in the US typically range between $38 and $73 an hour.

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Updated May 17, 2025

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How to hire a Product Manager