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Project director vs operations project manager

The differences between project directors and operations project managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a project director has an average salary of $107,396, which is higher than the $90,352 average annual salary of an operations project manager.

The top three skills for a project director include project management, oversight and customer satisfaction. The most important skills for an operations project manager are project management, business operations, and risk management.

Project director vs operations project manager overview

Project DirectorOperations Project Manager
Yearly salary$107,396$90,352
Hourly rate$51.63$43.44
Growth rate-6%
Number of jobs116,968210,582
Job satisfaction5-
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 66%Bachelor's Degree, 68%
Average age4744
Years of experience-6

What does a project director do?

A project director is an individual responsible for supervising workers from various departments given specific tasks to complete a given project. They create a budget to complete a job while monitoring the amount of money spent to ensure that overspending is avoided. They provide presentations to investors, business partners, and company executives to inform them about their progress and development. Project directors must have several years of experience and obtain at least a bachelor's degree in business economics or a related field to be hired.

What does an operations project manager do?

An operations project manager is responsible for monitoring the performance of the project team, ensuring that the operations meet the clients' standards and internal regulations with maximum productivity and efficiency. Operations project managers manage the department's budget and allocate materials and resources accurately, maintaining a record of expenses and costs forecasting. They coordinate with the clients, discussing project adjustments or additional tasks as needed, and lead project execution and deliverables by determining the team's needs and concerns, and enforcing strategic procedures.

Project director vs operations project manager salary

Project directors and operations project managers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Project DirectorOperations Project Manager
Average salary$107,396$90,352
Salary rangeBetween $70,000 And $162,000Between $66,000 And $122,000
Highest paying CityLas Vegas, NVSan Francisco, CA
Highest paying stateNevadaConnecticut
Best paying companyFried FrankMeta
Best paying industryTechnologyFinance

Differences between project director and operations project manager education

There are a few differences between a project director and an operations project manager in terms of educational background:

Project DirectorOperations Project Manager
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 66%Bachelor's Degree, 68%
Most common majorBusinessBusiness
Most common collegeUniversity of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Pennsylvania

Project director vs operations project manager demographics

Here are the differences between project directors' and operations project managers' demographics:

Project DirectorOperations Project Manager
Average age4744
Gender ratioMale, 56.2% Female, 43.8%Male, 68.7% Female, 31.3%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 7.5% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 12.5% Asian, 8.8% White, 65.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%Black or African American, 6.2% Unknown, 4.3% Hispanic or Latino, 15.4% Asian, 6.4% White, 67.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5%
LGBT Percentage10%10%

Differences between project director and operations project manager duties and responsibilities

Project director example responsibilities.

  • Provide direction and guidance to Americas regional executives with all aspects of managing their regions in order to achieve business goals.
  • Manage commercial real estate, adaptive reuse development project.
  • Create, maintain, and manage software development project schedules according to PMI standards.
  • Manage customer service center issues spanning Americas, European, and Asian delivery centers.
  • Refine and develop strong/functional on-site OCI management teams to ensure project EPC objectives are achieve.
  • Manage offshore / onshore test teams through entire SDLC for major, minor and hotfix releases.
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Operations project manager example responsibilities.

  • Manage resource allocation to help maximize ROI and focus on the division's strategy.
  • Manage operational programs that include the introduction and preparation for the manufacture of new products, design enhancements and OEM deviations.
  • Manage elaborate software implementation projects relate to national convenience store/gas station point of sale (POS) technology.
  • Manage payroll distribution process ensuring timeliness, accuracy, and confidentiality to protect client's privacy and prevent liability of exposure.
  • Reduce emergency department length of stay: participants reduce time to admit patients by 90 minutes.
  • Assist with providing best practices for the PMO base on previous positions that include PMO set up and interaction.
  • Show more

Project director vs operations project manager skills

Common project director skills
  • Project Management, 20%
  • Oversight, 19%
  • Customer Satisfaction, 8%
  • HR, 5%
  • Adaptive, 5%
  • ERP, 4%
Common operations project manager skills
  • Project Management, 20%
  • Business Operations, 6%
  • Risk Management, 5%
  • Process Improvement, 4%
  • Business Process, 4%
  • Provide Management, 4%

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