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Project manager & leader skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

7 min read

Quoted experts

Elisa Chan,

Nicole Jones Young Ph.D.

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical project manager & leader skills. We ranked the top skills for project managers & leader based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 22.1% of project manager & leader resumes contained project management as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a project manager & leader needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 project manager & leader skills for your resume and career

1. Project Management

Here's how project managers & leader use project management:

Performed Project Management activities for multiple internal projects involving enhancements and fixes and new relationships within the fixed annuity business line.
Applied project management methodology (PMI) and manage program implementation from business requirement collection, project planning to project execution.

2. Infrastructure

Infrastructure includes the organizational and physical structures needed to run an area or a society smoothly. It is a group of basic facilities required for any society or firm to run sustainably and efficiently. The infrastructural system is a high investing area and helps majorly in flourishing the economy and prosperity of a country. It is an underlying system needed for ensuring the safety and comfort of the public and to run a country smoothly. All the tasks needed to be performed for a flourishing economy and a happy and healthy public are included in infrastructure.

Here's how project managers & leader use infrastructure:

Managed multiple projects, infrastructure migration and rebuilds along with upgraded operating system software release levels, and application software implementation.
Played an instrumental role in re-engineering and streamline current data infrastructure and information exchange methodology in accordance with HIPAA regulations.

3. Post Implementation

Here's how project managers & leader use post implementation:

Identified post implementation upgrades and modifications and established maintenance processes.
Conducted post implementation reviews and analysis.

4. Risk Management

Risk management is the method of recognizing, evaluating, and managing risks to an organization's resources and profits. Financial insecurity, regulatory liability, strategic management mistakes, incidents, and natural hazards are just some of the challenges or dangers that could arise. For digitalized businesses, IT security vulnerabilities and data-related threats, as well as risk management techniques to mitigate them, have become top priorities.

Here's how project managers & leader use risk management:

Developed implementation plan which included risk management plan, configuration management plan, and quality plan.
Facilitate stakeholder communication and utilize risk management methodology to assist in the control of project scope.

5. Project Scope

Here's how project managers & leader use project scope:

Maintain continuous alignment of project scope with business objectives and make modifications to enhance effectiveness toward the intended result.
Created project scope statement/charter statements fully documented, reviewed/approved by end user/owner.

6. Project Plan

Here's how project managers & leader use project plan:

Develop and execute detailed project plans with appropriately specified requirements, identifiable critical paths, task dependencies, and major milestones.
Identified multiple SDLC process improvements and developed a target metadata environment, accompanied by a strategic project plan for implementation.

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7. Architecture

Here's how project managers & leader use architecture:

Developed organizational business information systems within enterprise architecture.
Established data architecture department for this start-up organization and developed top producing team with one of the lowest turnover rates company-wide.

8. Customer Satisfaction

Here's how project managers & leader use customer satisfaction:

Increased customer satisfaction by strengthening interactions with cross-functional teams to shorten schedules, reduce costs, and improve overall delivery quality.
Established CDRL documentation for re-occurring delivery of monthly key performance metrics to the government to enhance customer satisfaction and visibility.

9. Scrum

Scrum is a lean structure for communicating, designing, and promoting complex products, with a focus on programming development. It has been applied to a variety of areas, including manufacturing, testing, new technology, and marketing techniques. Scrum is a simple framework that helps people, organizations, and teams generate value by providing many solutions to complicated problems.

Here's how project managers & leader use scrum:

Practiced Agile methodologies, specifically Scrum.
Provided guidance and education to organization for Scrum to Organizational Leadership, Product Owners, and Developers from the production environment.

10. Client Facing

Here's how project managers & leader use client facing:

Have a passion around evolving products by managing large scale business impacting deployments into client facing production environment.
Developed business cases to support adoption of new solutions and developed client facing materials to drive product understanding.

11. Status Reports

Here's how project managers & leader use status reports:

Created and presented budgets and status reports and made recommendations to relevant stakeholders, including senior and executive communications.
Developed and coordinated project status reports and managed project artifacts and project documents utilizing SharePoint.

12. Business Process

A business process is a group of tasks that are performed by people working in a business to attain a worthy product and to present it to their customers. A business process can also be defined as performing several steps to achieve a certain goal set by a company. Business processes need to set purposeful goals and the outcome of that goal should be clear.

Here's how project managers & leader use business process:

Lead a cross-functional team of internal/external resources to successfully deploy initiatives throughout the business to capture synergies and improve business processes.
Develop business processes for nationwide HR related transformation, centralizing work in multiple divisions and realigning work structures under one organization.

13. Process Improvement

Here's how project managers & leader use process improvement:

Contributed to organizational process improvements such as estimation template which was adopted by business response team at organization level for estimations.
Migrated financial reports to Clarity and identified process improvements to increase quality of reports, reduced risk and streamlined process.

14. PMO

Project management office or, as is often abbreviated, PMO is a part often found in larger companies, agencies, and other organizations of varying sizes. This department's main focus is to create, alter, and help implement project management policies and regulations within their enterprise, through a number of methods and means, such as documents, guides, and personal assistance. A PMO is truly helpful in standardising and improving the way projects are handled, and thus should be good at minimising costs, errors, and incidents.

Here's how project managers & leader use pmo:

Led team of approximately sixty associates to implement ERP solutions using PMO methodology.
Represented customers on PMO and Technical Review solution design approval meetings.

15. Software Development

Software development is the mechanism by which programmers create computer programs. The Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a framework for developing applications that follow technological needs and consumer requirements. It consists of many stages. The SDLC establishes an international standard that software developers can use to enhance and create their programs. It provides a well-defined framework for software developers to pursue in the production, maintenance, and design of premium quality software. The aim of the software development process is to create high-quality software on time and within budget.

Here's how project managers & leader use software development:

Managed custom software development, implementation and product management for proprietary independent contractor system and VMS applications based on Oracle/PeopleSoft platform.
Created governance model and metrics for offshore software development vendor as well as provided local leadership for managing relationship and delivery.

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What skills help Project Managers & Leader find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on project manager & leader resumes?

Elisa Chan

Assistant Professor of Marketing, New York Institute of Technology

In my opinion, the fundamental skills required for marketing jobs haven't really changed. What changed is where or how these skills are applied. So my response to this question might sound cliche, but I strongly believe that it is true. Strong statistics and marketing analytics ability to show that you are able to make data-driven decisions. Interpersonal skills to show that you can respectfully and effectively interact with others, which are indicative of how you will manage work relationship as well as that with clients and customers.

What project manager & leader skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Nicole Jones Young Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior, Franklin and Marshall College

Gap years are interesting to me. There is a difference between someone who has ample monetary resources and voluntarily decides to take a "gap" year to travel the world, as opposed to someone who involuntarily takes a "gap" year because they legitimately cannot find a job.
For students who opt not enter the workforce immediately upon graduation, I would recommend that they utilize this time in a strategic fashion, primarily expanding their network, increasing their skills related to data analytics/analysis, and reading or researching within the broader business field as well as their particular field of interest. Expanding your network is always beneficial because of the value employers place on referrals. If students do not know where to start, I would recommend they join their applicable professional organization and begin attending events (virtual events can still help build relationships).
While specific job duties may differ, the ability to understand and utilize data is in high demand in virtually every job role. Having comfort with data-both quantitative and qualitative--can be a highly beneficial skill that many in the job market may not have to offer.
I also recommend continued reading and researching, as whenever you do enter the workforce you want to know what is going on. I am never surprised, but always disappointed when I ask my students if they heard the latest job numbers or if they saw a recent news article. It is hard to articulate your value to an organization's problems if you are unaware of what they are. Stay current.
Interestingly, I would not recommend that someone enroll in a graduate program simply to take up time. If you just love school, have a clear focus, or had already planned to enroll in graduate school prior to COVID, then proceed. However, if you are unsure about your interests or future career goals, enrolling in a graduate program may be a large investment of time and money that may not result in securing a job of interest upon completion.

What type of skills will young project manager & leaders need?

Eve Geroulis

Executive Lecturer, Loyola University Chicago

The capacity for synthesized thought. We need to approach education with an eye to stoking an imaginative and integrative approach to learning, thus empowering students to enter the workforce equipped with the capacity to connect myriad realms of life into a new cohesive whole. Today's education paradigm still draws from the 19th century when education was dramatically reformed to reflect the contemporary realities and needs of the first industrial revolution - driven by automation, and mass-production, and Adam Smith's "pin factory" where literalists and order-takers and processes drove the engine of the economy. But when thrashed against 21st Century realities, the needs of education extend far beyond memorization and learning specific, redundant skills.

Today, we create value by NOT following commands and being told what to do. There are few jobs right now in our jobless recovery, and the jobs young people seek aren't jobs where you're told what to do. The work of the future hinges on thinking off-the-grid on a universal scale. We need to retool education to create fewer "order-takers" and more inventors. Where the factory-model of education is replaced with a new understanding of what "knowledge" means and where curriculum for life aims to engage students in real-world problems, addressing issues important to humanity, and asking questions that matter.

What soft skills should all project manager & leaders possess?

Milena Stanislavova Ph.D.

Professor of Mathematics and Chair of Economics Department, University of Kansas

Working and collaborating in groups, presenting to different audiences, writing technical reports, grant applications and researching new topics are all essential soft skills. Much of today's world relies on data, so collecting, summarizing, organizing and presenting data is also an important soft skill that is becoming quite fundamental.

What hard/technical skills are most important for project manager & leaders?

Jason Caudill Ph.D.

Professor of Business, King University

The number one technical skill for today's professionals is the ability to learn new systems. Regardless of expertise in a particular platform, there are going to be updates and changes, and different companies will likely be on different major platforms to perform the same functions. A strong foundation of technical skills in communications software, spreadsheets, and cloud applications will give someone the foundation they need to function in most modern workplaces, but the real skill is being able to translate that understanding of the architecture to multiple platforms so they can manage change.

Do you want to know more?

List of project manager & leader skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a project manager & leader resume and required skills for a project manager & leader to have include:

Project Management
Infrastructure
Post Implementation
Risk Management
Project Scope
Project Plan
Architecture
Customer Satisfaction
Scrum
Client Facing
Status Reports
Business Process
Process Improvement
PMO
Software Development
SharePoint

UAT
HR
Management System
SDLC
R
Windows
Microsoft Project
QA
Data Warehouse
SQL Server
Project Budget
Visio
BI
Resource Allocation
Agile Project Management
Sigma

SME
Configuration Management
ERP
Direct Reports
Manage Cross
Test Cases
Escalation Management
User Acceptance
SLA
Cost Estimates
Organizational Change Management
Earned Value Management
CMS
Power Management
HTML

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

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