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The differences between project directors and project executives can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a project executive has an average salary of $123,391, which is higher than the $107,396 average annual salary of a project director.
The top three skills for a project director include project management, oversight and customer satisfaction. The most important skills for a project executive are construction management, project management, and healthcare.
| Project Director | Project Executive | |
| Yearly salary | $107,396 | $123,391 |
| Hourly rate | $51.63 | $59.32 |
| Growth rate | - | 16% |
| Number of jobs | 116,968 | 137,160 |
| Job satisfaction | 5 | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 66% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Average age | 47 | 47 |
| Years of experience | - | - |
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.
A project executive spearheads the projects and programs of an organization, ensuring its completion within deadlines, budgets, and standards. They mainly have administrative duties, such as streamlining project requirements and guidelines, establishing goals and budgets, setting timelines, delegating responsibilities among teams, selecting resources and materials, and monitoring operations, addressing issues and concerns when any arise. Additionally, a project executive leads employees to reach goals and implements the company standards and policies for an efficient workflow and service.
Project directors and project executives have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Project Director | Project Executive | |
| Average salary | $107,396 | $123,391 |
| Salary range | Between $70,000 And $162,000 | Between $79,000 And $191,000 |
| Highest paying City | Las Vegas, NV | Seattle, WA |
| Highest paying state | Nevada | Alaska |
| Best paying company | Fried Frank | Eckardt Group |
| Best paying industry | Technology | - |
There are a few differences between a project director and a project executive in terms of educational background:
| Project Director | Project Executive | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 66% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | University of Pennsylvania | University of Pennsylvania |
Here are the differences between project directors' and project executives' demographics:
| Project Director | Project Executive | |
| Average age | 47 | 47 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 56.2% Female, 43.8% | Male, 74.4% Female, 25.6% |
| Race ratio | Black 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, 7.6% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 12.8% Asian, 9.0% White, 65.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% |
| LGBT Percentage | 10% | 10% |