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Project management specialist vs manager, project management

The differences between project management specialists and managers, project management can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a manager, project management has an average salary of $102,925, which is higher than the $81,204 average annual salary of a project management specialist.

The top three skills for a project management specialist include PMP, powerpoint and status reports. The most important skills for a manager, project management are project management, risk management, and portfolio.

Project management specialist vs manager, project management overview

Project Management SpecialistManager, Project Management
Yearly salary$81,204$102,925
Hourly rate$39.04$49.48
Growth rate11%16%
Number of jobs145,872263,655
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 67%Bachelor's Degree, 69%
Average age4447
Years of experience4-

What does a project management specialist do?

A project management specialist is an individual who manages an entire project and serves as a point of contact for a client or customer. Project management specialists must provide detailed cost analysis and timetable reports to keep projects on schedule and budget. They must ask for frequent updates from all staff assigned so that they can identify potential problems that may keep projects from being completed on time. Project management specialists must also prepare progress reports of projects and create presentations for senior management.

What does a manager, project management do?

The role of a project management manager involves the planning, execution, monitoring, control, and closure of projects. Project managers oversee the scope of the entire project, the team, success or failure, and its resources. They facilitate productivity and commitment, remove obstacles, and motivate their team members. Their skills should include leadership, critical thinking, communication, negotiating, and risk management. They should also know about cost management, scheduling, and task management.

Project management specialist vs manager, project management salary

Project management specialists and managers, project management have different pay scales, as shown below.

Project Management SpecialistManager, Project Management
Average salary$81,204$102,925
Salary rangeBetween $58,000 And $112,000Between $73,000 And $144,000
Highest paying CityBridgewater, NJSan Francisco, CA
Highest paying stateNew JerseyCalifornia
Best paying companyEnbridgeRopes & Gray
Best paying industryFinancePharmaceutical

Differences between project management specialist and manager, project management education

There are a few differences between a project management specialist and a manager, project management in terms of educational background:

Project Management SpecialistManager, Project Management
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 67%Bachelor's Degree, 69%
Most common majorBusinessBusiness
Most common collegeStanford UniversityUniversity of Pennsylvania

Project management specialist vs manager, project management demographics

Here are the differences between project management specialists' and managers, project management' demographics:

Project Management SpecialistManager, Project Management
Average age4447
Gender ratioMale, 52.4% Female, 47.6%Male, 61.9% Female, 38.1%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 8.1% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 8.9% Asian, 11.8% White, 66.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%Black or African American, 7.6% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 12.7% Asian, 9.0% White, 65.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage12%10%

Differences between project management specialist and manager, project management duties and responsibilities

Project management specialist example responsibilities.

  • Plan and manage all development and production activities for the company s new cardiac rhythmic management (CRM) extrusion line.
  • Manage user authorization in SharePoint.
  • Manage change management activation and stabilization activities for ERP project within all sites.
  • Manage a team responsible for designing service-orient application architecture, standards and best practices guidelines, security and data access frameworks.
  • Update, create stories, and modify VDS tasks in JIRA.
  • Facilitate project meetings, including setting the agenda, meeting logistics and documentation of meetings.
  • Show more

Manager, project management example responsibilities.

  • Manage budgets and resources of various project groups to successfully implement ERP & CRM application.
  • Counsele application team leads in maximizing available migration windows for defect resolution.
  • Facilitate efforts on prioritizing bugs find during QA testing and manage remediation efforts.
  • Manage and monitor compliance with FDA validate system requirements, documentation creation and SDLC methodologies.
  • Manage services portfolio releases and delivery enablement process for major cloud and big data professional services offerings.
  • Lead digital initiative developments that integrate with current infrastructure, delivering timely market penetration to enhance organizational competitiveness.
  • Show more

Project management specialist vs manager, project management skills

Common project management specialist skills
  • PMP, 9%
  • PowerPoint, 7%
  • Status Reports, 7%
  • Program Management, 6%
  • Customer Service, 6%
  • Project Management Tools, 5%
Common manager, project management skills
  • Project Management, 20%
  • Risk Management, 7%
  • Portfolio, 5%
  • Customer Service, 3%
  • Process Improvement, 3%
  • On-Time Delivery, 3%

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