Director of Operations

Career Area: Business Management and Operations

Occupation Group: Operations Managers

Salary

Percentile wages tell how much a certain percentage of an overall population in a geographic area or within a given industry or field makes. The percentile wage estimate is the value of a wage below which a certain percent of workers fall.

An example would be the 25th percentile, 25 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 75 percent earn more than the estimated wage value. At the 75th percentile, 75 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 25 percent earn more than the estimated wage value.

A typical Director of Operations earns the following wages (national and state):

State

The average salary in North Carolina for those pursuing this career is $92,724

National

The average salary in the United States for those pursuing this career is $95,048

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

Responsible for the day-to-day operations of a company or organization. Plans, organizes, directs and evaluates delivery of goods and services. Supervises staff, oversee projects and daily work activities. May have responsibility for managing supplies and materials, budgets or customer relations; may serve as liaison to senior management.

Employment Trends

The job demand and job growth statistics shown here were derived from job posts over the past year. Expected job growth projections are extrapolated from year-over-year job post listing history.

Job demand and job growth is expected at the following rates:

Skills

A professional in this position typically utilizes the following skills in the course of everyday work in this exciting and challenging field:

Baseline Skills

The following are baseline skills every Director of Operations is expected to have in order to experience success in this field:

• Communication Skills: The ability to convey information to another effectively and efficiently.
• Planning: Working experience with the process of thinking about and organizing the activities required to achieve desired goals.
• Teamwork / Collaboration: Experience working in collaborative efforts with a team to achieve a common goal or to complete a task in the most effective and efficient way.
• Problem Solving: Problem solving consists of using generic or ad hoc methods, in an orderly manner, for finding solutions to problems.
• Organizational Skills: Experience with a systematic process of structuring, integrating, co-ordinating task goals, and activities to resources in order to attain objectives.

Specialized Skills

These skills are specific to working in this career:

• Budgeting: Experience planning how the financial resources of a business or department are to be allocated during the next business period.
• Project Management: Project management is the discipline of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria.
• Staff Management: Working experience with the management of subordinates in an organization.
• Scheduling: Working experience making schedules, which are basic time-management tools, consisting of a list of times at which possible tasks, events, or actions are intended to take place withing an organization.
• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Experience of analyzing a project or company and communicating it's success in terms of the measured performance of activities

Distinguishing Skills

Any Director of Operations that possesses the following skills will stand out against the competition:

• Financial Management: Financial management refers to the efficient and effective management of money (funds) in such a manner as to accomplish the objectives of the organization.
• Supervisory Skills: Supervision is an act or instance of directing, managing, or oversight.
• Business Strategy: Strategic management is the formulation and implementation of the major goals and initiatives taken by a company's top management on behalf of owners, based on consideration of resources and an assessment of the internal and external environments in which the organization competes.
• Business Management: Working experience of Business Management, which is the activities associated with running a company, such as controlling, leading, monitoring, organizing, and planning.
• Stakeholder Management: Working experience of Stakeholder Management, which is a critical component to the successful delivery of any project, programme or activity. A stakeholder is any individual, group or organization that can affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a programme. Stakeholder management creates positive relationships with stakeholders through the appropriate management of their expectations and agreed objectives.

Experience

This position typically requires the following level of experience. The numbers presented in the pie charts below were derived from actual job posts over the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.

Common Job Titles

It is possible to find work in this field in positions commonly listed as the following job titles:

• Director Of Operations
• Regional Director Of Operations
• Operations Director
• Director, Operations
• Director Operations

Similar Occupations

If you are interested in exploring similar occupations, you may want to research the following job titles:

• Operations Manager
• Vice President (General)
• General Manager
• Chief of Staff