How to hire a project officer

How to hire a project officer, step by step

Here's a step-by-step project officer hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a project officer job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new project officer
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a project officer do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you start hiring a project officer, identify what type of worker you actually need. Certain positions might call for a full-time employee, while others can be done by a part-time worker or contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   A project officer's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, project officers from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   Here's a comparison of project officer salaries for various roles:

   Type of Project Officer	Description	Hourly rate
   Project Officer		$19-40
   Call Center Manager	Call center managers specialize in overseeing call center operations and agents' performances, ensuring that customers are satisfied. Aside from this, they are mostly involved in hiring and training new agents, shaping them into productive workforce members... Show more	$11-28
   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... Show more	$31-67

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Project Management
   • Technical Assistance
   • Press Releases
   • Project Proposals
   • Logistical Support
   • Financial Reports
   • DOD
   • HR
   • Infrastructure
   • PMO
   • Risk Management
   • Data Collection
   • R
   • SharePoint

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Lead project to create a PMO data warehouse for analysts to track, validate, analyze and manage day-to-day portfolio activities.
   • Manage repository of SharePoint site to update and monitor inventory.
   • Lead multiple projects, including developing a SharePoint information portal.
   • Manage quality assurance checks for FDA and internal audits which result in no documentation/information error and successful completion of the audits.
   • Review and provide analysis statements on RFP and subsequent contractor responses to RFP.
   • Design and implement an algorithm to crawl over LinkedIn API and merge them using python program.

   More project officer duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your project officer job description is a great way to entice the best and brightest candidates. A project officer salary can vary based on several factors:

   • Location. For example, project officers' average salary in oklahoma is 45% less than in rhode island.
   • Seniority. Entry-level project officers earn 51% less than senior-level project officers.
   • Certifications. A project officer with a few certifications under their belt will likely demand a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for a prestigious company or an exciting start-up can make a huge difference in a project officer's salary.

   Average project officer salary

   $59,291yearly

   $28.51 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level project officer salary

   $41,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 17, 2025

   Average project officer salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	Maryland	$75,700	$36
   2	Connecticut	$73,615	$35
   3	New Jersey	$72,787	$35
   4	California	$72,769	$35
   5	Massachusetts	$68,841	$33
   6	New York	$68,324	$33
   7	District of Columbia	$68,242	$33
   8	Virginia	$63,978	$31
   9	North Carolina	$62,467	$30
   10	Illinois	$60,032	$29
   11	Wisconsin	$57,972	$28
   12	Washington	$57,884	$28
   13	Texas	$57,500	$28
   14	Ohio	$57,131	$27
   15	Minnesota	$53,085	$26
   16	Florida	$52,775	$25
   17	New Mexico	$50,003	$24
   18	Colorado	$49,443	$24
   19	Georgia	$47,211	$23

   Average project officer salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Morgan Stanley	$102,798	$49.42	55
   2	UBS	$98,409	$47.31	25
   3	BNY Mellon	$95,393	$45.86	19
   4	State Street	$94,158	$45.27	41
   5	Barclays	$94,031	$45.21
   6	BERKLEY TECHNOLOGY SERVICES	$92,200	$44.33	9
   7	IBM	$86,338	$41.51	55
   8	People, Technology & Processes	$85,579	$41.14	3
   9	Booz Allen Hamilton	$82,845	$39.83	35
   10	W. R. Berkley	$82,320	$39.58	2
   11	Tata Group	$82,004	$39.42	11
   12	Connors Group	$80,667	$38.78
   13	STV Group	$76,641	$36.85	57
   14	Hill International	$75,783	$36.43	23
   15	Portland State University	$75,287	$36.20
   16	City of San Antonio	$74,286	$35.71	3
   17	Cyient	$73,874	$35.52
   18	New York City School Construction Authority	$73,625	$35.40
   19	Abt Associates	$72,376	$34.80	4
   20	Wsp USA Buildings Inc.	$70,813	$34.04	93

4. Writing a project officer job description

   A project officer job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. To help get you started, here's an example of a project officer job description:

   Project officer job description example

   Leidos has an exciting opportunity for an Executive Project Officer located at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Hampton, VA. This position is part of a large program supporting Air Combat Command's (ACC) Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) mission. Candidates must already possess a TS/SCI security clearance.
   Job Duties Include:
   
   •Manage the establishment of RH as an AF Program of Record.
   •Establish exercise RESOLUTE HUNTER Organizational Ownership and draft/coordinate approval of exercise RESOLUTE HUNTER EXPLAN.
   •Liaise with Ex RESOLUTE HUNTER stakeholders to identify requirements and establish required agreements to sustain exercise.
   •Work with overall team to develop top-level exercise objectives with measures of effectiveness and performance, overall and event scenarios, DRMDs, OPFOR requirements and OPFOR scripts
   •Determine range equipment and software requirements, planning and deliverable timelines, execution events schedule
   •Gather, draft when necessary, and represent unit and functional team desired learning objectives
   •Assist with arrival and beddown plans, computer account setup, security clearances, software/system/space needs
   •Coordinate/support tasking and fulfillment of DRMD, NOS support, geographically separated unit/member participation, DV and observer attendance
   •Support mission execution, debrief, and participant instruction (incl. mid-exercise pause)
   •Provide ACC and HAF staff status updates, exercise debrief, and requests for support
   
   Required Qualifications:
   
   •Bachelor's degree & 20 years OR Master's degree and 15 years of relevant experience. (*Experience may be substituted in lieu of degree)
   •Must have prior experience supporting Intelligence and ISR desired learning objectives at AF Large Force Employment exercises such as RED FLAG.
   •Current TS/SCI security clearance.
   
   Preferred Qualifications:
   •Prior experience supporting Exercise RESOLUTE HUNTER planning and execution.
   
   Pay Range:
   Pay Range $72,150.00 - $111,000.00 - $149,850.00
   
   The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find the right project officer for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with project officers they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit project officers who meet your education requirements.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your project officer job on Zippia to find and recruit project officer candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting project officers requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match your ideal candidate profile. If you think a candidate is good enough for the next step, you can move on to the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new project officer

   Once you've found the project officer candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   It's also important to follow up with applicants who do not get the job with an email letting them know that the position is filled.

   To prepare for the new employee's start date, you can create an onboarding schedule and complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9 forms, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Human Resources should also ensure that a new employee file is created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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