Senior project director vs project administrator

The differences between senior project directors and project administrators can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a senior project director has an average salary of $99,266, which is higher than the $52,862 average annual salary of a project administrator.

The top three skills for a senior project director include project management, business operations and product development. The most important skills for a project administrator are project management, purchase orders, and customer service.

Senior project director vs project administrator overview

	Senior Project Director	Project Administrator
Yearly salary	$99,266	$52,862
Hourly rate	$47.72	$25.41
Growth rate	-	-8%
Number of jobs	86,779	141,253
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 71%	Bachelor's Degree, 60%
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 project administrator do?

A project administrator is an individual who assists the project manager in the preparation, reporting, and analysis of projects. Project administrators are given tasks with administrative responsibilities such as managing the budget for supply orders, coordinating meetings with contractors, and doing site visits. They are involved with hiring staff members for a project and creating employee guidelines based on talents, skills, and abilities. Project administrators are also responsible for providing reports on the project's progress to the top management.

Senior project director vs project administrator salary

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

	Senior Project Director	Project Administrator
Average salary	$99,266	$52,862
Salary range	Between $67,000 And $146,000	Between $33,000 And $83,000
Highest paying City	Seattle, WA	Baltimore, MD
Highest paying state	Alaska	Maryland
Best paying company	Amazon	Urban Institute
Best paying industry	Technology	Construction

Differences between senior project director and project administrator education

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

	Senior Project Director	Project Administrator
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 71%	Bachelor's Degree, 60%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	University of Pennsylvania

Senior project director vs project administrator demographics

Here are the differences between senior project directors' and project administrators' demographics:

	Senior Project Director	Project Administrator
Average age	47	47
Gender ratio	Male, 58.5% Female, 41.5%	Male, 25.0% Female, 75.0%
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, 7.7% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 12.9% Asian, 8.9% White, 65.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage	10%	10%

Differences between senior project director and project administrator 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.

Project administrator example responsibilities.

Lead organization in achieving ISO 9000 certification, which lead to future certification under both ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001.
Manage and execute the SharePoint business integration implementation project and become the corporate governance portal administrator.
Manage quality assurance checks for FDA and internal audits which result in no documentation/information error and successful completion of the audits.
Create and execute SQL to query DB2 databases.
Compose, prepare, proofread, edit and publish department correspondence.
Coordinate in creation and execution of QA and testing processes, test strategies and plans.

Senior project director vs project administrator 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 project administrator skills

Project Management, 12%
Purchase Orders, 8%
Customer Service, 7%
PowerPoint, 6%
Data Entry, 5%
Assist Project, 4%

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Senior Project Director
Senior Project Director vs Project Administrator

Updated January 8, 2025

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