Senior manager, product development vs director of product development

The differences between senior managers, product development and directors of product development 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 manager, product development and a director of product development. Additionally, a director of product development has an average salary of $140,507, which is higher than the $128,407 average annual salary of a senior manager, product development.

The top three skills for a senior manager, product development include project management, product development and product management. The most important skills for a director of product development are product development, project management, and product management.

Senior manager, product development vs director of product development overview

	Senior Manager, Product Development	Director Of Product Development
Yearly salary	$128,407	$140,507
Hourly rate	$61.73	$67.55
Growth rate	10%	10%
Number of jobs	192,651	175,429
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 72%	Bachelor's Degree, 71%
Average age	39	39
Years of experience	10	10

What does a senior manager, product development do?

A senior manager of product development is in charge of overseeing the efforts put into designing and manufacturing products, including quality control operations. Their responsibilities revolve around coordinating with different departments to gather data, performing research and analysis to assess existing procedures, and devising strategies to optimize processes. They may also set goals and schedules, produce progress reports, and spearhead the development of new products and services. Furthermore, as a senior manager, it is essential to lead and encourage the workforce to reach goals, all while implementing the company's policies and regulations.

What does a director of product development do?

A Director of Product Development supervises and implements product development policies, initiatives, and objectives. They conduct market research to determine consumer needs and identify competitors.

Senior manager, product development vs director of product development salary

Senior managers, product development and directors of product development have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Senior Manager, Product Development	Director Of Product Development
Average salary	$128,407	$140,507
Salary range	Between $95,000 And $172,000	Between $100,000 And $196,000
Highest paying City	Woonsocket, RI	San Mateo, CA
Highest paying state	Rhode Island	California
Best paying company	Credit Karma	Apple
Best paying industry	Professional	Manufacturing

Differences between senior manager, product development and director of product development education

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

	Senior Manager, Product Development	Director Of Product Development
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 72%	Bachelor's Degree, 71%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Georgia	University of Georgia

Senior manager, product development vs director of product development demographics

Here are the differences between senior managers, product development' and directors of product development' demographics:

	Senior Manager, Product Development	Director Of Product Development
Average age	39	39
Gender ratio	Male, 64.6% Female, 35.4%	Male, 72.0% Female, 28.0%
Race ratio	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%	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 Percentage	10%	10%

Differences between senior manager, product development and director of product development duties and responsibilities

Senior manager, product development example responsibilities.

Serve as SME and key resource on all projects manage.
Manage a scrum team with cross-functional expertise in a team room, as well as offshore members.
Manage production planning to ensure medical combination product portfolio on-time delivery to European pharmaceutical clients
Manage developers accountable for coding, database development, UI implementation, and system architecture.
Plan, determine project resource requirements, assumptions and critical path for portfolio of NPD projects.
Define scrum processes and tools best suit for web and mobile projects.

Director of product development example responsibilities.

Organize and manage project meetings between partners, vendors, and associates using both scrum and waterfall methodologies.
Manage long-term care, hospital transition, and Medicaid- Medicare expansion initiatives, that includes model of care design and implementation )
Manage packaging design and nutritional labeling within QA guidelines.
Manage company intellectual portfolio and develop key relationships with vendors and clients including leading global technology companies.
Develop using Java, JSP, J2EE, CSS, DHTML, HTML, Plugins and JavaScript.
Prepare proposals for new projects, including project feasibility, ROI, expenses and costs.

Senior manager, product development vs director of product development skills

Common senior manager, product development skills

Project Management, 10%
Product Development, 7%
Product Management, 7%
SR, 5%
Scrum, 5%
Product Roadmap, 4%

Common director of product development skills

Product Development, 12%
Project Management, 9%
Product Management, 9%
R, 7%
Product Strategy, 4%
Market Research, 3%

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Senior Manager, Product Development
Senior Manager, Product Development vs Director Of Product Development

Updated January 8, 2025

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