Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between project executives and program managers 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 $96,084 average annual salary of a program manager.
The top three skills for a project executive include construction management, project management and healthcare. The most important skills for a program manager are project management, program management, and oversight.
| Project Executive | Program Manager | |
| Yearly salary | $123,391 | $96,084 |
| Hourly rate | $59.32 | $46.19 |
| Growth rate | 16% | 12% |
| Number of jobs | 137,160 | 197,556 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 5 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 67% | Bachelor's Degree, 66% |
| Average age | 47 | 47 |
| Years of experience | - | - |
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.
A program manager is responsible for monitoring the project's progress, improving and developing new strategies, and coordinate various projects across the organization to ensure the success of the business objective. Program managers also manage the program's expenses, ensuring that the projects adhere to the budget goals without compromising the quality and accuracy of the result. A program manager should regularly connect with the different teams of every project under the program to keep track of the processes and procedures for the timely delivery of the product.
Project executives and program managers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Project Executive | Program Manager | |
| Average salary | $123,391 | $96,084 |
| Salary range | Between $79,000 And $191,000 | Between $65,000 And $141,000 |
| Highest paying City | Seattle, WA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | Alaska | California |
| Best paying company | Eckardt Group | Meta |
| Best paying industry | - | Technology |
There are a few differences between a project executive and a program manager in terms of educational background:
| Project Executive | Program Manager | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 67% | Bachelor's Degree, 66% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | University of Pennsylvania | University of Pennsylvania |
Here are the differences between project executives' and program managers' demographics:
| Project Executive | Program Manager | |
| Average age | 47 | 47 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 74.4% Female, 25.6% | Male, 52.9% Female, 47.1% |
| Race ratio | 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% | Black or African American, 7.6% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 12.7% Asian, 8.9% White, 65.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% |
| LGBT Percentage | 10% | 10% |