What is a Senior Product Manager?

A senior product manager is the head product manager who leads a group of product managers and is responsible for overseeing product development from conception to delivery. You are responsible for developing product strategies that are consistent with the vision of your company and are determined to yield a high return on investments. It is also very vital that you track the impact of your product on consumers by collecting and analyzing feedback.

Senior product managers are creative and are constantly coming up with strategies to expand the product base and vision, thereby maximizing profitability. You must be on your toes, motivating the team to ensure a continuous workflow between teams involved in product development and ensuring that deadlines are met.

An average senior product manager makes a whooping sum of $138,026 per year. Most of them have degrees in marketing, business administration, or other related fields. Senior product managers are required to have good research skills, excellent communication skills, team leadership skills, and basic design skills, amongst others.

What Does a Senior Product Manager Do

There are certain skills that many senior product managers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, communication skills and creativity.

Learn more about what a Senior Product Manager does

How To Become a Senior Product Manager

If you're interested in becoming a senior product manager, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 72.1% of senior product managers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 21.6% of senior product managers have master's degrees. Even though most senior product managers have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Senior Product Manager

Senior Product Manager Job Description

Senior product managers are tenured members of a product management team who may also manage team members. They ensure the team can come up with products that address consumer needs by gathering market information, analyzing trends, benchmarking with other companies, and understanding consumer behavior.

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Senior Product Manager Career Paths

In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of marketing director you might progress to a role such as director, strategic marketing eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title director, strategic marketing.

Senior Product Manager

Average Salary for a Senior Product Manager

Senior Product Managers in America make an average salary of $133,868 per year or $64 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $182,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $98,000 per year.
Average Senior Product Manager Salary
$133,868 Yearly
$64.36 hourly
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Roles and Types of Senior Product Manager

The role of a senior product manager includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general senior product manager responsibilities:

  • Own groupon's local marketplace and manage seller
  • Identify and develop new product and market opportunities manage the complete product lifecycle process, alongside the vice president of product management from concept to delivery. Closely collaborate, work
  • Managing the entire product line life cycle product strategy

There are several types of senior product manager, including:

Product Manager

Role:

Do you ever wonder how products sell in the marketplace? Or how come your favorite artist is on the television, advertising the item you could see on a shopping stall, but didn't think of buying until now? That's a product manager's job. Simply put, product managers handle the product's presence in the market to persuade a person, like you, to take those items home.

Needless to say, the product manager is a senior position. And for you to qualify, you should have extensive experience and skills under your belt to handle sales strategies and the team's performance. You'll be the team's "know-it-all" - meaning, you'll never run out of ideas and techniques to make the account successful. Basically, that's your objective - to help the business grow by achieving your client's highest satisfaction.

Being a product manager is actually not a smooth-sailing journey, because you will be accountable for whatever results your strategies might create. But the self-accomplishment it brings is priceless, especially when you know that you contribute so much to the company's goals. Everyone has their own starting point. It's just a matter of hard work and patience to get to the top of the game. And maybe, the business owner of the cereal you're eating every morning needs someone like you to lead that brand. We'll never know.

  • Average Salary: $111,729
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Brand Manager

Role:

A brand manager is vital to any business as they control the perception of the brand to the public eye. A brand manager is responsible for building the face of the brand and making its products stand out amidst several competitors in the market. You must carry out your research to find out how your brand is positioned against other competitors and to determine the public perception of your brand. Researching on the latest consumer trends and raves is also very helpful in creating a captivating brand identity. You must also further in developing the right advertising and promotional strategies for your brand. You are central in creating innovative business ideas on how to drive profitability and brand loyalty from customers.

Employers usually prefer an MBA in addition to an undergraduate degree in business or marketing. You are expected to be extremely creative, innovative, strategic, and detail-oriented. You must also be able to motivate your team and optimize ideas and resources. The mean annual salary for a brand manager is about $103,000 annually.

  • Average Salary: $97,789
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Product Marketing Manager

Role:

Product marketing managers are responsible for developing effective marketing strategies and plans to communicate the features and benefits of new products to customers. You are to handle market research on current trending products, establish timescales for upcoming products, influence pricing and packaging, guide sales teams, develop messaging, and market positioning around products, and participate in presentations and events. Frequently, you are referred to as the 'voice of the customer' within the company, precisely researching consumer needs and experiences. You will work mainly in private sector companies, but you can be employed by any company that promotes and sells products.

You need to have a bachelor's degree in business administration or marketing for this job. As a product marketing manager, your job requires you to work with multiple teams, and you need to have collaborative skills. You should also have excellent product management skills. Your average salary per annum is $92,174.

  • Average Salary: $112,220
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree
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States With The Most Senior Product Manager Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active senior product manager jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where senior product managers earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Senior Product Manager Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1California8,942$145,171
2Texas3,285$115,495
3New York2,937$129,145
4Washington2,486$141,281
5Illinois2,292$113,617
6Florida1,913$109,633
7Massachusetts1,879$128,501
8Pennsylvania1,850$122,765
9Virginia1,660$121,653
10North Carolina1,543$115,008
11New Jersey1,478$127,948
12Georgia1,466$110,591
13Ohio1,236$109,772
14Minnesota1,130$105,043
15Oregon1,080$136,900
16Colorado1,065$106,788
17Arizona950$120,807
18Michigan916$116,008
19Wisconsin880$111,530
20Maryland827$120,274
21Utah812$118,308
22Indiana648$108,518
23Tennessee625$109,672
24Missouri541$107,807
25Connecticut504$111,963
26South Carolina395$113,082
27Arkansas350$104,301
28Kansas335$102,427
29Iowa321$108,053
30Kentucky313$103,793
31New Hampshire312$111,898
32Nevada281$117,250
33Rhode Island276$123,194
34Nebraska267$97,745
35Idaho264$128,512
36Alabama263$101,364
37New Mexico224$109,377
38Vermont214$110,991
39Montana183$118,418
40Oklahoma176$116,847
41Louisiana176$112,374
42Delaware169$126,522
43Maine142$110,716
44Mississippi105$107,432
45North Dakota105$98,786
46South Dakota100$107,464
47West Virginia92$120,721
48Alaska89$135,651
49Hawaii73$102,595
50Wyoming70$101,014

Senior Product Manager Education

Senior Product Manager Majors

Business
24.9 %
Marketing
12.3 %
Electrical Engineering
9.4 %

Senior Product Manager Degrees

Bachelors

72.1 %

Masters

21.6 %

Associate

3.9 %

Top Colleges for Senior Product Managers

1. University of Georgia

Athens, GA • Private

In-State Tuition

$11,830

Enrollment

29,474

2. University of Wisconsin - Madison

Madison, WI • Private

In-State Tuition

$10,555

Enrollment

30,360

3. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

Minneapolis, MN • Private

In-State Tuition

$14,760

Enrollment

31,451

4. Purdue University

West Lafayette, IN • Private

In-State Tuition

$9,992

Enrollment

33,495

5. Howard University

Washington, DC • Private

In-State Tuition

$26,756

Enrollment

6,166

6. Ohio State University

Columbus, OH • Private

In-State Tuition

$10,726

Enrollment

45,769

7. University of Texas at Austin

Austin, TX • Private

In-State Tuition

$10,610

Enrollment

40,329

8. University of Southern California

Los Angeles, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$56,225

Enrollment

19,548

9. University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,584

Enrollment

10,764

10. SUNY at Binghamton

Vestal, NY • Private

In-State Tuition

$9,808

Enrollment

13,990

Top Skills For a Senior Product Manager

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 11.0% of senior product managers listed product management on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and communication skills are important as well.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Senior Product Manager Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Senior Product Manager templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Senior Product Manager resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

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Senior Product Manager diversity

Senior Product Manager Gender Distribution

Male
Male
69%
Female
Female
32%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among senior product managers, 31.5% of them are women, while 68.5% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among senior product managers is White, which makes up 74.6% of all senior product managers.

  • The most common foreign language among senior product managers is Spanish at 26.4%.

Online Courses For Senior Product Manager That You May Like

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Best States For a Senior Product Manager

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a senior product manager. The best states for people in this position are California, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. Senior product managers make the most in California with an average salary of $145,171. Whereas in Washington and Oregon, they would average $141,281 and $136,900, respectively. While senior product managers would only make an average of $135,651 in Alaska, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. Washington

Total Senior Product Manager Jobs: 2,486
Highest 10% Earn:
$195,000
Location Quotient:
2

$141,281

Avg. Salary

View 2,486 Senior Product Manager Jobs In WA

2. Oregon

Total Senior Product Manager Jobs: 1,080
Highest 10% Earn:
$190,000
Location Quotient:
1.53

$136,900

Avg. Salary

View 1,080 Senior Product Manager Jobs In OR

3. California

Total Senior Product Manager Jobs: 8,942
Highest 10% Earn:
$199,000
Location Quotient:
1.8

$145,171

Avg. Salary

View 8,942 Senior Product Manager Jobs In CA
Full List Of Best States For Senior Product Managers

How Do Senior Product Managers Rate Their Jobs?

4/5

5 Stars

4 Stars

3 Stars

2 Stars

1 Star

Senior Product Manager Reviews

4.0
Jun 2020
Pros

Its not a specific job, As a product manager your job responsibilities cover many different areas and that's what i love about it.

Cons

all other teams think that they are doing a task for you instead of thinking that they are part of a team on a project

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Top Senior Product Manager Employers

We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ senior product managers and discovered their number of senior product manager opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Amazon was the best, especially with an average salary of $146,311. Salesforce follows up with an average salary of $142,509, and then comes Walmart with an average of $160,555. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a senior product manager. The employers include VMware, Veeva Systems, and The Home Depot

Most Common Employers For Senior Product Manager

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1eBay$172,183$82.78178
2PayPal$166,538$80.07177
3VMware$165,468$79.55134
4Microsoft$162,290$78.02289
5Intuit$161,322$77.56140
6Walmart$160,555$77.19296
7LinkedIn$158,587$76.24106
8Adobe$150,124$72.1784
9Amazon$146,311$70.341,120
10Cisco$144,605$69.52121
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Becoming a Senior Product Manager FAQs

Do Product Managers Get Paid Well?

Yes, product managers get paid well. The average annual base salary of a product manager is approximately $95,000. There are a number of factors that impact the salary of a product manager, including where and who they work for.

How Long Does It Take To Become A Senior Product Manager?

It takes 6 to 8 years to become a senior product manager. There are different pathways into this position. A product manager is tuned into customer needs and leads the team to find or create the product or features that will fulfill the demand.

How Much Does A Senior Product Manager At Amazon Earn?

A senior product manager at Amazon earns $148,700 as a base salary, on average. Additional bonuses and stock options can add $40,000 annually.

You are given several specified shares on your vest date, which you can hold or sell immediately. There are different levels product managers move through; L5 is considered a senior position. Salaries vary based on years of experience and location.

What Makes A Good Senior Product Manager?

A good senior product manager needs a sense of vision and excellent communication skills. In this position, you are keeping your finger on the pulse of what consumers want.

You may be involved in product development, strategy, and launch. You are motivating your team throughout the product's lifecycle. This requires an understanding of the market and strong leadership.

What Qualifications Do I Need To Be A Product Manager?

Product managers need to have a minimum of a bachelor's degree and some relevant work experience. Education and work experiences are both essential in becoming a product manager, but both can vary a great deal.

What's The Difference Between A Product Manager And A Senior Product Manager?

The difference between a product manager and a senior product manager is the range of responsibilities.

The senior product manager will enjoy increased product ownership, whereas the product manager will have more to do with ground-level execution and launch.

Have more questions? See all answers to common executive management questions.

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Updated April 6, 2023