How To Become A Senior Resource Manager: What It Is and Career Path

What is a senior resource manager and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Dr. Melissa Price

Senior resource managers are extremely valuable assets for a company. They are insurers of the tasks and functions carried out by the HR team. Senior resource managers also play a crucial role in the HR department, as they oversee it to ensure its operations run smoothly. You will see these professionals being the link between the employees of the organization and its management. Recruiting, interviewing, and hiring new employees are an important part of their job.

Many private companies and industries, such as technology and health care industries, are ideal workplaces for them. You are looking at a classic 40 hours per week job but work time may extend to more than that during long recruitment sessions. The wage of experienced managers is $37.78 per hour.

Good managers possess excellent ethical conduct, decision-making, interpersonal, leadership, communication, and strategic-thinking skills. This is an upper-level post, so extensive human resource experience is required along with a bachelor's degree. But some companies prefer a master's degree in HR management.

What general advice would you give to a senior resource manager?

Dr. Melissa Price

Associate Professor

If you can identify a need and start a nonprofit or for profit business to fill that need, there is huge salary potential. For example, in natural resource management much of the work is contracted out to various sectors. If you live in a rural or remote island area such as Hawai'i, many of these contractors need to be flown in from outside the area, dramatically increasing costs. If you can develop a local business model to meet these needs, you essentially will have a corner on the market. Examples include heavy machinery, genetic analysis services, water testing services, certification training, decision analysis and facilitation, native plant nurseries, biosecurity, and helicopter services for transportation and materials delivery to remote work sites. Any preparation that demonstrates capacity for leadership positions will help you obtain positions beyond entry level technicians. Specialized skills will also help you negotiate salaries. While a solid understanding of the scientific aspects of the job are important, many higher level positions require an understanding of project management. Coursework or internships that include use of spreadsheets, preparation of reports, or team management will demonstrate that you can quickly move into project management positions.

ScoreSenior Resource ManagerUS Average

Salary

6.8

Avg. Salary $86,990

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.6

Growth rate 7%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.40%

Asian 5.71%

Black or African American 7.65%

Hispanic or Latino 11.14%

Unknown 5.09%

White 70.01%

Gender

female 50.39%

male 49.61%

Age - 47

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 47

Stress level

8.6

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.4

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.3

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a senior resource manager

Explore senior resource manager education requirements

Most common senior resource manager degrees

Bachelor's

64.2 %

Associate

13.4 %

Master's

12.8 %

Start to develop specific senior resource manager skills

Skills	Percentages
Professional Development	22.58%
Business Development	13.81%
PMO	11.69%
ERP	7.53%
Business Process	7.27%

Research senior resource manager duties and responsibilities

Manage the positions and resume searches using popular job portals such as dice, craigslist and LinkedIn.
Manage operations and logistics, coordinating transportation of personnel, equipment, and supplies to ensure on-time arrival/departure.
Manage operations and logistics, coordinating transportation of personnel, equipment, and supplies to ensure on-time arrival/departure.
Utilize computer billing software for Medicaid billable services.

Get senior resource manager experience

Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become a senior resource manager. The most common roles before becoming a senior resource manager include senior technical recruiter, resource manager team lead and senior recruiter.

Prepare your senior resource manager resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your senior resource manager resume.

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