Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between senior project specialists and project managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a project manager has an average salary of $91,578, which is higher than the $87,213 average annual salary of a senior project specialist.
The top three skills for a senior project specialist include project management, powerpoint and status reports. The most important skills for a project manager are project management, project scope, and customer service.
| Senior Project Specialist | Project Manager | |
| Yearly salary | $87,213 | $91,578 |
| Hourly rate | $41.93 | $44.03 |
| Growth rate | 11% | 8% |
| Number of jobs | 111,859 | 167,116 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 4.17 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 68% | Bachelor's Degree, 68% |
| Average age | 44 | 47 |
| Years of experience | 6 | - |
The job of a senior project specialist is to manage a portfolio of projects and ensure that these projects achieve quality development outcomes. You will perform a variety of duties that include providing day-to-day support to teams, preparing and reviewing requests for project-related activities, and overseeing the project's financial aspects by reviewing monthly invoices. In addition, you will monitor monthly costs and track contract expenditures against total obligated funds and budget. As a senior project specialist, it is also your responsibility to recruit short- and long-term personnel.
Project managers oversee a specific project related to the organization's business. They manage the whole project from inception to evaluation. They initiate planning with involved departments, follow-through on the plans, ensure smooth execution of the plans, and evaluate the project for further improvements should these be needed. In line with this, project managers also ensure that the project is cost-efficient and well within the budget. They also manage the different work teams involved in the project and ensure that things are running smoothly on this aspect as well.
Senior project specialists and project managers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Senior Project Specialist | Project Manager | |
| Average salary | $87,213 | $91,578 |
| Salary range | Between $67,000 And $112,000 | Between $64,000 And $129,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | Idaho | California |
| Best paying company | Amazon | The Citadel |
| Best paying industry | Insurance | Technology |
There are a few differences between a senior project specialist and a project manager in terms of educational background:
| Senior Project Specialist | Project Manager | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 68% | Bachelor's Degree, 68% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Stanford University | University of Pennsylvania |
Here are the differences between senior project specialists' and project managers' demographics:
| Senior Project Specialist | Project Manager | |
| Average age | 44 | 47 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 50.0% Female, 50.0% | Male, 68.9% Female, 31.1% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 6.2% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 8.8% Asian, 12.0% White, 67.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5% | Black or African American, 7.7% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 12.9% Asian, 9.0% White, 65.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% |
| LGBT Percentage | 11% | 10% |