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Program Manager skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

8 min read

Quoted Experts

Dr. Timothy Edwards,

Marcia Godwin Ph.D.

Some of the most important hard skills a program manager can possess include general oversight, procedural knowledge, and a good amount of experience in project management. It's important that program managers have a great understanding of project management as it forms the basis of their job.

When it comes to soft skills, program managers should have strong customer service skills, as well as experience managing logistical plans. Program managers need to communicate often with those who are senior to them and those who report to them, so communication skills are also crucial.

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical program manager skills. We ranked the top skills for program managers based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 11.5% of program manager resumes contained project management as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a program manager needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 program manager skills for your resume and career

1. Project Management

Here's how program managers use project management:

Project management position overseeing residential and non-residential services to individuals that assisted themselves and their families in community and family engagement.
Engineered new Project Management Organization (PMO) Project Management Process matrix definition, identification and development of project artifact templates.

2. Program Management

Here's how program managers use program management:

Led the professional service delivery program management for an international implementation of an enhanced North American Operating Model for global bank.
Directed the development and implementation of redesigned engineering change management system * Acting SharePoint manager for program management site development.

3. Oversight

Having oversight of someone means to monitor a process or a situation. If someone has oversight of something, they are responsible for the completion of the project. Oversight is usually given to experts as they monitor their juniors or newbies as they go through a project.

Here's how program managers use oversight:

Provided government oversight for engineering and design solutions for the Medical Community of Interest wide area network and security suite architecture.
Coordinate partnership efforts with other state and local agencies to facilitate oversight and technical assistance related to private school compliance activities.

4. Customer Service

Customer service is the process of offering assistance to all the current and potential customers -- answering questions, fixing problems, and providing excellent service. The main goal of customer service is to build a strong relationship with the customers so that they keep coming back for more business.

Here's how program managers use customer service:

Develop and maintain customer relationships/manage related customer service responsibilities
Managed Quality Assurance/Reliability and Customer Service operations.

5. Infrastructure

Infrastructure includes the organizational and physical structures needed to run an area or a society smoothly. It is a group of basic facilities required for any society or firm to run sustainably and efficiently. The infrastructural system is a high investing area and helps majorly in flourishing the economy and prosperity of a country. It is an underlying system needed for ensuring the safety and comfort of the public and to run a country smoothly. All the tasks needed to be performed for a flourishing economy and a happy and healthy public are included in infrastructure.

Here's how program managers use infrastructure:

Designed and managed Chemical Plant site construction, Infrastructure design and construction, including off-site vendor fabrication and on-site equipment assembly.
Utilized Information Technology Infrastructure Library guidelines and framework in order to determine the operational impact to the organization s mission.

6. Excellent Organizational

Here's how program managers use excellent organizational:

Required excellent organizational skills, and highly goals oriented effort.

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7. Risk Management

Risk management is the method of recognizing, evaluating, and managing risks to an organization's resources and profits. Financial insecurity, regulatory liability, strategic management mistakes, incidents, and natural hazards are just some of the challenges or dangers that could arise. For digitalized businesses, IT security vulnerabilities and data-related threats, as well as risk management techniques to mitigate them, have become top priorities.

Here's how program managers use risk management:

Created and implemented design procedures that increased efficiency, accelerated customer satisfaction and slashed error rate with better risk management.
Utilized Organizational Risk Management to coordinate multiple time sensitive assets including 250 personnel engaged in high-risk training of 1800 students.

8. Patients

Here's how program managers use patients:

Provide thorough daily Utilization Management review of patients in acute medical & acute psychiatric units according to McKesson InterQual standards of care
Submitted medical necessity letters to medical insurance companies, notifying patients of insurance provider s approval or denial of coverage.

9. Logistics

Logistics is a complete organization and implementation of a problem. Logistics are often considered in a complex business operation, as some works need detailed plannings. Logistics are also used in military action.

Here's how program managers use logistics:

Planned for future operations regarding personnel, equipment and logistics resulting in flawless transition of operations to multiple continents.
Promoted to Logistics Division to preside over business- critical projects and act as strategic thinker in planning future developments.

10. Excellent Interpersonal

Here's how program managers use excellent interpersonal:

Utilized excellent interpersonal skills to collaborate and interact with internal/external customers.
Exemplified excellent interpersonal skills when promoting team development.

11. HR

HR stands for human resources and is used to describe the set of people who work for a company or an organization. HR responsibilities revolve around updating employee records and carrying out management processes like planning, recruitment, evaluation, and selection processes. HR is a key contributor to any company or organization's growth as they are in charge of hiring the right employees, processing payrolls, conducting disciplinary actions, etc.

Here's how program managers use hr:

Designed diversity and inclusion scorecard for HR Leadership, highlighting opportunities, and increasing diversity at leadership levels in the organization.
Initiated coordination between HR operations, design, and corporate purchasing to overhaul operational scorecards used to measure benefit supplier performance.

12. DOD

Definition of Done (DoD) is a set of deliverables that are needed to devise software. These deliverables are valuable to the system and can be exemplified by writing code, coding comments, unit testing, integration testing, design documents, release notes, and so on.

Here's how program managers use dod:

Supported the successful deployment and maintenance of standardized financial systems solutions to improve overall business management and compliance with DoD requirements.
Provided management support and technical direction during deployment of nuclear protection systems at one of four DoD military installations.

13. Product Development

Product development is the complete procedure of creating a product from concept until release of the final product. Product development has many stages after which a product is released into the market. Identifying the need, creating the opportunity, conceptualizing a product, and providing a solution, all are different stages of product development.

Here's how program managers use product development:

Produced monthly reports for executive leadership reflecting product development performance, crafting insightful, relevant communications with in-depth, refined data.
Designed frameworks for market research, technology assessment and patent analysis needed to establish commercialization strategies and support new product development.

14. Process Improvement

Here's how program managers use process improvement:

Implemented center-wide administrative process improvements resulting in streamlined staff duties, comprehensive process documentation, and improved internal & external communications.
Utilized historical data and root cause/corrective action analysis to pin point areas of focus for tooling and quality and process improvement.

15. Data Analysis

Here's how program managers use data analysis:

Provide leadership for qualitative and quantitative data analysis on a variety of health topics including the impact policies on vulnerable populations.
Coordinate of on-shore and off-shore support sub-contractors performing precision measurements, data analysis, and documentation creation and change order maintenance.

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What skills help Program Managers find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on Program Manager resumes?

Dr. Timothy Edwards

Professor, Interim Director, University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Writing and research skills. Analytical and critical thinking skills. Technical skills such as web design, graphic design, audio and video production skills. Employers are interested in potential employees knowledge, intelligence and skills.

What hard/technical skills are most important for Program Managers?

Marcia Godwin Ph.D.

Professor of Public Administration, Master of Public Administration (MPA) Director, University of La Verne

There is no replacement for being able to write at a professional level, which we often don't recognize as a hard skill. Being able to read financial statements and work with spreadsheets are other critical skills. Being comfortable with technology and managing technical projects is as important as knowing particular software. It was hard to imagine a few decades ago how geographical informational systems, apps, and social media would become central to public service. Managers need to be constantly looking to the future and staying current with their professional development to stay on top of technological and social changes.

What soft skills should all Program Managers possess?

Marcia Godwin Ph.D.

Professor of Public Administration, Master of Public Administration (MPA) Director, University of La Verne

The perennial soft skills include flexibility, integrity, and the ability to communicate well with a wide variety of people and in different media. Customer service skills may sound too much like a retail business, but the ability to interact professionally and calmly with the public and officials is invaluable. In these challenging times, empathy and humility are increasingly important. Managers need to be able to focus and prioritize. The pandemic, climate change, and social justice issues require open minds, open hearts, and collaboration.

What Program Manager skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Dr. Malissa Scheuring Leipold

Chair & Associate Professor, Iona College

If a graduate needs to take a gap year, I would recommend that they keep their footing in the education field in some manner. Whether this is training in educational platforms, like Google Classroom or IXL which have become very popular among PK-12 schooling, this will enhance the skills which are now required in most classrooms today since the current climate dictates whether schooling may be in-person one day and remote another. Such classes/workshops are offered through colleges and universities, such as Iona, as well as through professional educator groups, such as Kappa Delta Pi, which is an international honor society in education. Also, every curricular area has professional memberships for teachers, and they consistently offer refresher workshops which keep teachers abreast of the latest in their field. Employers want to know that their teacher candidates and teachers take the initiative to be lifelong learners and model continuous best practice.

What type of skills will young Program Managers need?

Dr. Sharon Ross

Assistant Professor, Coordinator, MEd, Superintendent Program, Tarleton State University

Future leaders in educational organizations will need to understand the meaning of coaching educators to "get better faster" as prescribed by Paul Bambrick-Santoyo (2016), execute the principles of coaching teachers, and pursue perfection as a means of intentional classroom improvement. These young graduates must enter the workforce with a working understanding of how to lead the charge of diving and digging deep into school and student data reading, analyzing, and searching for problems of practice, and then implementing high-impact instructional strategies to achieve the goals set forth.

Their skillset has to include the abilities to reason, solve problems, think at a higher level, collaborate and build teams as well as relationships, persuade, communicate effectively with a diverse group of internal and external stakeholders, motivate all stakeholders and encourage/promote parental and community involvement, hire the best and be a tech-savvy, data-driven leader, promoting success for all students, listen to others, follow the directions of a direct supervisor, and understand the policies and procedures of day-to-day operations.

What technical skills for a Program Manager stand out to employers?

Dr. Amy Holcombe Ph.D.

Interim Dean, High Point University

Education leaders must posses effective communication skills that enable them to inspire internal and external stakeholders to buy into their vision. They must be leaders who can stake out a vision, align all of their resources and efforts towards achieving that vision, and effectively gain the commitment from all constituents to support that vision. Savvy employers are also looking for leaders that know how to leverage and develop the talent of their people to achieve the organization's strategic goals. Instructional leadership is not longer 'enough.' Strategic leaders must know how to maximize the talent of each team member in order to engage and retain them.

Do you want to know more?

List of program manager skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a program manager resume and required skills for a program manager to have include:

Project Management
Program Management
Oversight
Customer Service
Infrastructure
Excellent Organizational
Risk Management
Patients
Logistics
Excellent Interpersonal
HR
DOD
Product Development
Process Improvement
Data Analysis
Software Development
Customer Satisfaction

Business Development
Service Delivery
Social Work
Client Facing
Scrum
Technical Support
Digital Transformation
Program Development
Status Reports
Professional Development
Azure
Management System
Data Collection
Mental Health
Program Budget
SharePoint
PMO

Sigma
SQL
Java
Corrective Action
Program Operations
Project Scope
Medicaid
Windows
Cloud Computing
Earned Value Management
QA
Business Processes
R
Direct Reports
ISO
Opportunity Management

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

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