Director of Program Management

Career Area: Business Management and Operations

Occupation Group: Project and Program 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 Program Management earns the following wages (national and state):

State

The average salary in North Carolina for those pursuing this career is $92,199

National

The average salary in the United States for those pursuing this career is $98,733

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

Directs ongoing program activity, or a group of program managers, for a company or organization. May be responsible for strategic direction.

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 Program Management 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.
• Building Effective Relationships: Building relationships is about your ability to identify and initiate working relationships and to develop and maintain them in a way that is of mutual benefit to both yourself and the other party. Good relationships are the key to getting things done and are essential when your success is dependent on others.

Specialized Skills

These skills are specific to working in this career:

• 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.
• Budgeting: Experience planning how the financial resources of a business or department are to be allocated during the next business period.
• Program Management: Program management or programme management is the process of managing several related projects, often with the intention of improving an organization's performance.
• 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.
• Staff Management: Working experience with the management of subordinates in an organization.

Distinguishing Skills

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

• 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.
• Program Development: program development - Computer Definition. May refer to the coding of an individual software program or to the creation on an entire information system and all relatedsoftware.
• Lifecycle Management: In industry, product lifecycle management (PLM) is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from inception, through engineering design and manufacture, to service and disposal of manufactured products.
• Program Planning: A program plan is the outline of events and activities that your members follow to reach the goals of the organization. A successful program plan provides detail and shows how each activity supports your organization's mission.
• Business Operations: Experience working with organizational teams to manage the operation and financial performance of a business.

Salary Boosting Skills

A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills:

• Financial Acumen: Maintaining and applying a broad understanding of financial management principles to ensure decisions are fiscally sound and responsible.

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, Program Management
• Director Of Program Management
• Director Program Management
• Technician Program Director
• Manager, Program Management

Similar Occupations

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

• Director of Project Management
• Senior Project Manager
• Operations Project Manager
• Program Coordinator