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Senior director, product management vs product lead

The differences between senior directors, product management and product leads can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 8-10 years to become both a senior director, product management and a product lead. Additionally, a senior director, product management has an average salary of $169,685, which is higher than the $118,828 average annual salary of a product lead.

The top three skills for a senior director, product management include product management, SR and product strategy. The most important skills for a product lead are product management, project management, and architecture.

Senior director, product management vs product lead overview

Senior Director, Product ManagementProduct Lead
Yearly salary$169,685$118,828
Hourly rate$81.58$57.13
Growth rate10%10%
Number of jobs173,32795,557
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 72%Bachelor's Degree, 66%
Average age3939
Years of experience1010

What does a senior director, product management do?

A senior director of product management's role is to direct and oversee the product development operations in an organization, ensuring that all procedures adhere to the vision, mission, and goals of the company. Their responsibilities revolve around creating roadmaps and guidelines, coordinating with different departments to gather relevant data, setting budgets and objectives, devising strategies and finding new opportunities, and monitoring sales while putting customer feedback into consideration. Furthermore, as a senior director, it is essential to lead and encourage team members, all while implementing the company's policies and regulations.

What does a product lead do?

A product lead is responsible for monitoring the development of new products and services of an organization, starting from brand conceptualization to official market release and distribution. Product leads identify effective product management by conducting data analysis and evaluating market statistics of customer demands. They coordinate with the clients on their specifications and requirements, including the budget limit and timely deliverables. A product lead manages the brand promotion on media platforms, creating content that adheres to the target audience.

Senior director, product management vs product lead salary

Senior directors, product management and product leads have different pay scales, as shown below.

Senior Director, Product ManagementProduct Lead
Average salary$169,685$118,828
Salary rangeBetween $123,000 And $233,000Between $86,000 And $163,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CASan Francisco, CA
Highest paying stateWashingtonCalifornia
Best paying companyeBayAirbnb
Best paying industryMediaHospitality

Differences between senior director, product management and product lead education

There are a few differences between a senior director, product management and a product lead in terms of educational background:

Senior Director, Product ManagementProduct Lead
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 72%Bachelor's Degree, 66%
Most common majorBusinessBusiness
Most common collegeUniversity of GeorgiaUniversity of Georgia

Senior director, product management vs product lead demographics

Here are the differences between senior directors, product management' and product leads' demographics:

Senior Director, Product ManagementProduct Lead
Average age3939
Gender ratioMale, 80.5% Female, 19.5%Male, 71.1% Female, 28.9%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 3.0% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 8.7% Asian, 8.2% White, 74.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%Black or African American, 3.0% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 8.7% Asian, 8.2% White, 74.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage10%10%

Differences between senior director, product management and product lead duties and responsibilities

Senior director, product management example responsibilities.

  • Lead redesign on the UI and navigation.
  • Develop and manage client email campaigns, PPC management, SEO, and affiliate marketing.
  • Create and lead internal education program with goal of reducing time spend on development and QA testing.
  • Conduct integration, technology and programmer partner contract negotiations, manage both internal and external resources for product UI development.
  • Define vision for next generation cloud and SaaS platform to capitalize on market opportunity and provide platform to re-invent existing product.
  • Implement initiatives tracking, reporting and monitoring KPIs.
  • Show more

Product lead example responsibilities.

  • Manage multiple teams of designers, information architects, and UI developers across various projects for desktop, mobile and tablets.
  • Design, manage, and implement internationalization QA process for radiology software in the European office.
  • Manage horizontal UX prototyping resource needs, implementing effective collaborative expectations and cross-product timeline allocation strategies.
  • Lead UX designer for multiple scrum teams.
  • Develop the first versions of cloud base web services APIs to integrate enterprise applications as well as 3rd party applications.
  • Used a combination of extreme programming, scrum, traditional waterfall processes to establish a multi-location, engineering and support operation.
  • Show more

Senior director, product management vs product lead skills

Common senior director, product management skills
  • Product Management, 12%
  • SR, 7%
  • Product Strategy, 6%
  • Market Research, 6%
  • Analytics, 6%
  • ROI, 5%
Common product lead skills
  • Product Management, 9%
  • Project Management, 6%
  • Architecture, 5%
  • Digital Marketing, 5%
  • Lifecycle Management, 4%
  • Cloud, 4%

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