Operations Project Manager
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 Operations Project Manager earns the following wages (national and state):
State
The average salary in North Carolina for those pursuing this career is $81,848
National
The average salary in the United States for those pursuing this career is $84,081
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
Manages work on projects designed to improve business operations and processes within a business or organization. Leads project teams, manages project budgets and schedules; manages contractors and communications with stakeholders. Manages project activities to improve data management, data reporting and the flow of information.
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:
| Location | Growth | |
|---|---|---|
| North Carolina | 105 | +10.2% |
| Nationwide | 2597 | +6.3% |
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 Operations Project Manager is expected to have in order to experience success in this field:
- Communication Skills: The ability to convey information to another effectively and efficiently.
- 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.
- Planning: Working experience with the process of thinking about and organizing the activities required to achieve desired goals.
- Problem Solving: Problem solving consists of using generic or ad hoc methods, in an orderly manner, for finding solutions to problems.
- Microsoft Excel: Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet developed by Microsoft for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications.
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.
- Project Planning and Development Skills: 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.
- 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.
- Change Management: Experience working with an organized, systematic application of the knowledge, tools, and resources of change that provides organizations with a key process to achieve their business strategy
Distinguishing Skills
Any Operations Project Manager that possesses the following skills will stand out against the competition:
- Atlassian JIRA: Jira ( JEE-rah) (stylized JIRA) is a proprietary issue tracking product, developed by Atlassian.
- Resource Management: In organizational studies, resource management is the efficient and effective development of an organization's resources when they are needed.
- Business Case Analysis: Working experience of Business Case Analysis, which can be defined as a decision support and planning tool that projects the likely financial results and other business consequences of an action or investment.
Salary Boosting Skills
A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills:
- Waterfall Development Process: Working experience of the Waterfall Development Process. In software development, it tends to be among the less iterative and flexible approaches, as progress flows in largely one direction through the phases of conception, initiation, analysis, design, construction, testing, deployment and maintenance.
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.
| Experience Required | % |
| 0 to 2 years | 19% |
| 3 to 5 years | 59% |
| 6 to 8 years | 16% |
Many of the programs offered through NC State are designed for working professionals who need additional credentials to enhance existing work experience.
Students who do not have the expected level of experience may wish to look into internship and employment opportunities.
Common Job Titles
It is possible to find work in this field in positions commonly listed as the following job titles:
- Operations Project Manager
- Project Manager, Installation Operations
- Project Manager, Operations
- Project Manager - Operations
- Regional Senior Project Manager- Operations
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