Program administrator vs lead administrator

The differences between program administrators and lead administrators can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a program administrator and a lead administrator. Additionally, a lead administrator has an average salary of $94,444, which is higher than the $50,715 average annual salary of a program administrator.

The top three skills for a program administrator include customer service, oversight and patients. The most important skills for a lead administrator are payroll, office equipment, and expense reports.

Program administrator vs lead administrator overview

	Program Administrator	Lead Administrator
Yearly salary	$50,715	$94,444
Hourly rate	$24.38	$45.41
Growth rate	5%	5%
Number of jobs	119,898	57,229
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 64%	Bachelor's Degree, 53%
Average age	43	43
Years of experience	2	2

What does a program administrator do?

Program administrators are responsible for planning, directing, and coordinating their organization's program or service. Their duties and responsibilities may vary depending on the industry they work at, such as educational, community, and social services. Among these duties are selecting and supervising the staff to manage a certain program or project, managing the program's budget, and evaluating the success of a program. To become successful in this role, a program administrator must have in-depth knowledge of project management disciplines, leadership skills, and decision-making and problem-solving skills.

What does a lead administrator do?

Lead administrators are information technology (IT) professionals who are responsible for managing and troubleshooting departmental computer operations of an organization. These IT professionals must manage and approve access to their online score data as well as create new users directly in the portal to allow access to the score data. They manage the office supplies of the organization while processing salary management and executive payroll every month. Lead administrators must also coordinate with technicians for hardware, printer, and cabling repairs.

Program administrator vs lead administrator salary

Program administrators and lead administrators have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Program Administrator	Lead Administrator
Average salary	$50,715	$94,444
Salary range	Between $34,000 And $73,000	Between $63,000 And $141,000
Highest paying City	Urban Honolulu, HI	Richmond, CA
Highest paying state	Hawaii	Oregon
Best paying company	Meta	Koch Industries
Best paying industry	Government	Finance

Differences between program administrator and lead administrator education

There are a few differences between a program administrator and a lead administrator in terms of educational background:

	Program Administrator	Lead Administrator
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 64%	Bachelor's Degree, 53%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	Stanford University	Stanford University

Program administrator vs lead administrator demographics

Here are the differences between program administrators' and lead administrators' demographics:

	Program Administrator	Lead Administrator
Average age	43	43
Gender ratio	Male, 30.6% Female, 69.4%	Male, 37.2% Female, 62.8%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 8.8% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 12.5% Asian, 8.8% White, 64.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%	Black or African American, 9.2% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 12.9% Asian, 9.5% White, 63.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%
LGBT Percentage	9%	9%

Differences between program administrator and lead administrator duties and responsibilities

Program administrator example responsibilities.

Manage monetary, laptop and training supports for members living with HIV.
Manage overall document inventory and wiki updates via SharePoint.
Manage CRM and SharePoint systems for online recruiting technology company.
Manage co-op vendor and provide overall program direction for Toyota dealers and regional offices nationwide.
Develop and implement administrative procedures for new mental health management unit providing day services to elderly patients.
Invoice clients using QuickBooks software.

Lead administrator example responsibilities.

Manage and coordinate office operations and procedures to include payroll preparation, information management/filing systems, and supply requisitions.
Support and troubleshoot all claims questions and provide assistance with more advance issues.
Provide initiatives and suggestions for performance tuning of applications, script auto deployment plans, troubleshoot complex production issues.
Create and implement migration plans to new SharePoint environments.
Provide application training for company's custom provisioning application.
Implement SSO configuration and user provisioning on IDM environments.

Program administrator vs lead administrator skills

Common program administrator skills

Customer Service, 7%
Oversight, 7%
Patients, 6%
Project Management, 6%
PowerPoint, 4%
Client Facing, 4%

Common lead administrator skills

Payroll, 10%
Office Equipment, 8%
Expense Reports, 6%
Windows, 6%
Data Entry, 5%
PowerPoint, 5%

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Program Administrator
Program Administrator vs Lead Administrator

Updated January 8, 2025

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