Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between senior product specialists and product managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 4-6 years to become a senior product specialist, becoming a product manager takes usually requires 8-10 years. Additionally, a senior product specialist has an average salary of $112,464, which is higher than the $111,729 average annual salary of a product manager.
The top three skills for a senior product specialist include product management, healthcare and powerpoint. The most important skills for a product manager are product management, QA, and product strategy.
| Senior Product Specialist | Product Manager | |
| Yearly salary | $112,464 | $111,729 |
| Hourly rate | $54.07 | $53.72 |
| Growth rate | 19% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 72,109 | 125,678 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 5 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 70% | Bachelor's Degree, 72% |
| Average age | 37 | 39 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 10 |
A senior product specialist is tasked with creating or improving products. In this role, they are instrumental in customizing, configuring, and creating new product solutions and subsequent deployment. Their responsibilities include leading all sales activities, identifying new markets, performing demonstrations for target customers, conducting market intelligence surveys to identify potential customers, creating sales proposals, negotiating sales agreements, developing drafts, sending out product development bulletins, and affecting production. They must also create and maintain relations with customers.
A product manager is responsible for ensuring product development, providing the best marketing strategies, and effectively handling the sales and marketing team. Product managers' duties include monitoring the market trends and conditions, identifying business opportunities and plan initiatives, and collaborating the product launch process with the appropriate departments. A product manager is also responsible for generating ideas on improving product features, determining timetables and reasonable pricing, and analyzing product sales. A product manager must have excellent strategic and decision-making skills to contribute to its growth and profitability.
Senior product specialists and product managers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Senior Product Specialist | Product Manager | |
| Average salary | $112,464 | $111,729 |
| Salary range | Between $82,000 And $153,000 | Between $81,000 And $152,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | Meta | |
| Best paying industry | Pharmaceutical | Retail |
There are a few differences between a senior product specialist and a product manager in terms of educational background:
| Senior Product Specialist | Product Manager | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 70% | Bachelor's Degree, 72% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | University of Georgia | University of Georgia |
Here are the differences between senior product specialists' and product managers' demographics:
| Senior Product Specialist | Product Manager | |
| Average age | 37 | 39 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 66.0% Female, 34.0% | Male, 65.3% Female, 34.7% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 5.0% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 11.8% Asian, 13.4% White, 64.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% | 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% |