What does a project executive do?
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 executive responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real project executive resumes:
- Note for co-authoring and managing RFP process.
- Manage projects using ITIL and SDLC methodologies.
- Manage vendors and internal service owners to create the proper operating model to deliver service against SLAs.
- Lead cross-functional team delivery execution of top-of-rack and embed converged network architecture switches.
- Coordinate and manage project delivery of healthcare design and construction projects in collaboration with hospital staff.
- Lead operational transformation projects, perform service line volume projections, and feasibility exercises for various facilities.
- Negotiate design build hvac system, saving 10 plus million
- Inspect and identify HVAC systems for repairs, and or replacement.
- Identify incidents where contractual SLAs are missed and take the necessary corrective action.
- Identify new process improvement opportunities, while ensuring compliance with new and establish PMO processes.
- Ensure the customer receive optimal support through quality assurance, through the development of ITIL procedures and best practice i.e.
- Improve end user experience by replacing outdate distributed infrastructure.
- Develop global PMO organization plan and contract governance solution.
- Utilize web analytics, SEO and perform competitive analysis.
- Devise healthcare process and outcome measures that are substantively meaningful and logically consistent.
Project executive skills and personality traits
We calculated that 13% of Project Executives are proficient in Construction Management, Project Management, and Healthcare. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Business skills, and Communication skills.
We break down the percentage of Project Executives that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Construction Management, 13%
Well-established construction management, general contracting, and design/build company; having specialty in green construction.
- Project Management, 11%
Crafted an effective project management plan and improved it as necessary to guarantee currency, consistency and applicability.
- Healthcare, 9%
Presented nationally innovative project delivery and procurement strategies to national healthcare providers, on behalf of Premier Inc and Turner Construction.
- Business Development, 7%
Meet regularly with executive committee members to discuss business development strategies and assess current project status across all projects.
- Client Satisfaction, 5%
Maximize client satisfaction providing high level of professionalism.
- Portfolio, 4%
Managed IT services portfolio consisting of Application Development & Deployment, Data Center Operations, Network Support and Internet Services.
Common skills that a project executive uses to do their job include "construction management," "project management," and "healthcare." You can find details on the most important project executive responsibilities below.
Analytical skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a project executive to have is analytical skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "it managers must analyze problems and consider and select the best ways to solve them." Project executives often use analytical skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "analyzed the actual business process to implement these three modules. "
Business skills. Many project executive duties rely on business skills. "it managers must develop and implement strategic plans to reach the goals of their organizations.," so a project executive will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways project executive responsibilities rely on business skills: "led effort to redesign failed business intelligence project and deliver a successful project for hr analytics. "
Communication skills. project executives are also known for communication skills, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to project executive responsibilities, because "it managers must explain their work to top executives and give clear instructions to their subordinates." A project executive resume example shows how communication skills is used in the workplace: "open communication and leadership let to successful transition to client's in-house data center and customer reference. "
Leadership skills. A big part of what project executives do relies on "leadership skills." You can see how essential it is to project executive responsibilities because "it managers must lead and motivate it teams or departments so that workers are efficient and effective." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical project executive tasks: "key accomplishments: demonstrated outstanding leadership and superb project management skills, consistently scoring a high 80s on customer satisfaction. "
Organizational skills. A commonly-found skill in project executive job descriptions, "organizational skills" is essential to what project executives do. Project executive responsibilities rely on this skill because "some it managers must coordinate the work of several different it departments to make the organization run efficiently." You can also see how project executive duties rely on organizational skills in this resume example: "added transparency to an average of 150 it portfolio and initiatives while adapting to ever-changing global organizational technology goals. "
The three companies that hire the most project executives are:
- Gilbane Building Company60 project executives jobs
- GPAC32 project executives jobs
- Turner Construction13 project executives jobs
Compare different project executives
Project executive vs. Associate director
An associate director oversees the daily activities and business operations within a particular area. They are primarily responsible for devising strategies that aim for growth in profit and customer satisfaction, implementing policies and standards, evaluate the workforce, providing support to various departments, and setting goals in terms of budget and sales. Furthermore, they must regularly report progress to the director and coordinate with managers and supervisors in the joint effort to reach the vision and mission of the company.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a project executive are more likely to require skills like "construction management," "client satisfaction," "construction projects," and "financial performance." On the other hand, a job as an associate director requires skills like "patients," "oversight," "excellent interpersonal," and "customer service." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Associate directors tend to reach similar levels of education than project executives. In fact, associate directors are 2.5% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 3.6% more likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Project executive vs. Program manager
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.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that project executive responsibilities requires skills like "construction management," "healthcare," "client satisfaction," and "portfolio." But a program manager might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "program management," "oversight," "customer service," and "excellent organizational."
Program managers earn similar levels of education than project executives in general. They're 0.2% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 3.6% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Project executive vs. Consultant/project manager
Consultants/project managers act as planners, leaders, and advisors in business enterprises. These professionals facilitate meetings and establish positive relationships with vendors, management, and clients. They make customer visits, maintain industry knowledge, procure third-party software and hardware, and deliver projects. It is also part of their duty to manage complex initiatives in an individual business unit or organization. Their skills include analytical, time and cost management, problem-solving, interpersonal skills, and proficiency in project management software.
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from project executive resumes include skills like "construction management," "client satisfaction," "portfolio," and "construction projects," whereas a consultant/project manager is more likely to list skills in "manage project scope," "scrum," "crm," and "client facing. "
Consultant/project managers typically earn similar educational levels compared to project executives. Specifically, they're 0.7% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.5% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Project executive vs. Senior project coordinator
A senior project coordinator is responsible for analyzing client accounts and determining efficient project management systems and processes according to business requirements and client specifications. Senior project coordinators ensure that the team meets the project goals by providing and assessing every progress of the project's milestones and adjust plans as necessary. They also consider the project's budget limitations in strategizing techniques that would drive more revenue resources for the business and increase the company's brand image to the market.
Even though a few skill sets overlap between project executives and senior project coordinators, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a project executive might have more use for skills like "construction management," "healthcare," "business development," and "client satisfaction." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of senior project coordinators require skills like "powerpoint," "meeting minutes," "project documentation," and "sharepoint. "
The average resume of senior project coordinators showed that they earn lower levels of education compared to project executives. So much so that theyacirc;euro;trade;re 6.5% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree by 0.3%.Types of project executive
Updated January 8, 2025
