Senior project director vs manager, project management

The differences between senior project directors and managers, project management can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a manager, project management has an average salary of $102,925, which is higher than the $99,266 average annual salary of a senior project director.

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

Senior project director vs manager, project management overview

	Senior Project Director	Manager, Project Management
Yearly salary	$99,266	$102,925
Hourly rate	$47.72	$49.48
Growth rate	-	16%
Number of jobs	86,779	263,655
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 71%	Bachelor's Degree, 69%
Average age	47	47
Years of experience	-	-

What does a senior project director do?

A senior project director spearheads and oversees projects in a company, aiming for smooth workflow and significant results. Their responsibilities typically include setting goals, establishing guidelines and timelines, managing staff, coordinating managers, liaising with external business partners, and monitoring the progress of all operations, resolving issues should any arise. They must also produce progress reports and present them to the executives. Moreover, as a senior project director, it is essential to lead and encourage staff to reach goals while promoting the company's policies and regulations.

What does a manager, project management do?

The role of a project management manager involves the planning, execution, monitoring, control, and closure of projects. Project managers oversee the scope of the entire project, the team, success or failure, and its resources. They facilitate productivity and commitment, remove obstacles, and motivate their team members. Their skills should include leadership, critical thinking, communication, negotiating, and risk management. They should also know about cost management, scheduling, and task management.

Senior project director vs manager, project management salary

Senior project directors and managers, project management have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Senior Project Director	Manager, Project Management
Average salary	$99,266	$102,925
Salary range	Between $67,000 And $146,000	Between $73,000 And $144,000
Highest paying City	Seattle, WA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	Alaska	California
Best paying company	Amazon	Ropes & Gray
Best paying industry	Technology	Pharmaceutical

Differences between senior project director and manager, project management education

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

	Senior Project Director	Manager, Project Management
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 71%	Bachelor's Degree, 69%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	University of Pennsylvania

Senior project director vs manager, project management demographics

Here are the differences between senior project directors' and managers, project management' demographics:

	Senior Project Director	Manager, Project Management
Average age	47	47
Gender ratio	Male, 58.5% Female, 41.5%	Male, 61.9% Female, 38.1%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 7.5% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 12.6% Asian, 8.9% White, 65.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%	Black or African American, 7.6% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 12.7% Asian, 9.0% White, 65.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage	10%	10%

Differences between senior project director and manager, project management duties and responsibilities

Senior project director example responsibilities.

Lead the team through the technical and commercial evaluation of bids and selection of the LSTK EPC contractor.
Manage a wide variety of quantitative and qualitative consumer insights studies in the automotive, healthcare, and consumer products industries.
Manage content enter into Salesforce.
Manage multiple research databases, perform data entry and conduct cost-effectiveness statistical analysis using SPSS.
Manage qualitative projects from study design through analysis for consumer package goods, business-to-business, healthcare and pharmaceutical research projects.
Develop and maintain SharePoint InfoPath forms.

Manager, project management example responsibilities.

Manage budgets and resources of various project groups to successfully implement ERP & CRM application.
Counsele application team leads in maximizing available migration windows for defect resolution.
Facilitate efforts on prioritizing bugs find during QA testing and manage remediation efforts.
Manage and monitor compliance with FDA validate system requirements, documentation creation and SDLC methodologies.
Manage services portfolio releases and delivery enablement process for major cloud and big data professional services offerings.
Lead digital initiative developments that integrate with current infrastructure, delivering timely market penetration to enhance organizational competitiveness.

Senior project director vs manager, project management skills

Common senior project director skills

Project Management, 24%
Business Operations, 17%
Product Development, 12%
Client Satisfaction, 6%
Strategic Direction, 5%
Business Development, 5%

Common manager, project management skills

Project Management, 20%
Risk Management, 7%
Portfolio, 5%
Customer Service, 3%
Process Improvement, 3%
On-Time Delivery, 3%

Senior Project Director vs. similar jobs

Senior Project Director related careers

Senior Project Director related jobs

What similar roles do

Zippia Careers
Executive Management Industry
Senior Project Director
Senior Project Director vs Manager, Project Management

Updated January 8, 2025

Browse executive management jobs