Project Director Salary

Created by Henry Steele

By Henry Steele - January 8, 2018
Reading Time: 8 minutes
Reading Time: 8 minutes

The following article discusses the career path of Project Director. Learn about how to become one, education requirements, job duties, traits and qualities, national salary outlook as well as top national employers of Project Directors.

Job Duties

Generally speaking, project directors are responsible for a certain project, ensuring that it is properly managed, implemented, and above all completed. They hold overarching responsibility for guiding the activities of everybody involved in the project. They coordinate each element of the project, ensuring that it is able to meet the set goals. Usually, project managers work under significant constraints, having limited personnel, time, and money available.

Project directors are involved with the concept long before the project has even started. They have a full understanding of what the expected outcome is of the concept and they develop strategic plans to ensure those goals can be met under the limitations of the resources that are available. They develop a phased approach to the project, ensuring staff and money is available for each phase. As things progress, they often have to make adjustments to ensure the project stays on track. They also have to monitor the successes and failures that have so far been achieved, and report on this to other senior managers.

Other job duties of a project director are:

  • Having responsibility for large projects, or for specific elements of particularly large projects.
  • Managing available resources, including the teams working on the project.
  • Ensuring that each element of the project plan is properly designed and implemented.
  • Tracking the different elements of the project plan and making adjustments as and where needed to stay on track.

Where We Work

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics does not maintain data for project directors. This is mainly because they can be found in any industry and any company, anywhere in the country and even the world. They could be responsible for a quick and short project in a disaster relief charity, or for a long term project in a tech company looking at creating a new search engine function, for instance.

How to Become

Project directors usually work in office environments during full time hours. The exact educational requirements they have to meet vary depending on what field they are completing a project in. Usually, however, they have a bachelor’s degree in a field related to the industry, supplemented by a master’s degree to give them the manager and leadership skills they require. They often also have many years’ work experience.

Education Requirements

Most project directors firstly have a bachelor’s degree in a field relating to their industry. For instance, if they are responsible for a project in manufacturing, they often have a bachelor’s degree in engineering. Most also have a master of business administration (MBA in Project Management) degree or a different type of graduate degree to further ensure they have the appropriate skills for the job.

Traits & Qualities

The most effective have the following traits to some degree or other:

  • Strong leadership skills
  • Ability to act as change agents and instill confidence in order to embrace change as well.
  • Team workers, while at the same time capable of working alone under minimal supervision
  • Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written
  • Confident
  • Strong interpersonal skills
  • Results driven and detail oriented

Minimum Education

Master’s Degree

National Salary

The national average salary estimate for Project Director was $82,923. This number is estimated from over 265,924 employees, users past and present job advertisements from Indeed.com. This equates to an hourly salary of $43.19 and monthly of $6,910.

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$15,000

$208,000

Salary Distribution

Salary by State

The following section lists Project Director salaries in each state around the country. The figures are based on the total number of job postings through Indeed.com. For example, Texas had the largest quoted salary of $103,706 while Oklahoma had the smallest quoted salary of $42,570.

AlaskaKansasNew York
ArkansasLouisianaOklahoma
ArizonaMassachusettsPennsylvania
CaliforniaMarylandTennessee
ColoradoMichiganTexas
DCMinnesotaVirginia
FloridaMontanaVermont
GeorgiaNew JerseyWashington
IllinoisNevadaWisconsin
Alaska$49,785Rank: 25th
The average salary ranks 25th among states in the country. There were also job openings from employers like Fairbanks Native Association.

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$13.05

$39.20

Salary Distribution
Arkansas$70,914Rank: 18th
The average salary ranks 18th among states in the country. There were also job openings from employers like University of Arkansas.

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$14,000

$188,000

Salary Distribution
Arizona$81,361Rank: 12th
The average salary ranks 12th among states in the country. There were also job openings from employers like State of Arizona and University of Arizona.

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$14,000

$210,000

Salary Distribution
California$94,394Rank: 4th
The average salary ranks 4th among states in the country. There were also job openings from employers like Hamilton Mayer, AppleOne, Jewish Community Federation of San Franicisco, and S.R. Clarke & Associates, LLC.

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$19,000

$228,000

Salary Distribution
Colorado$73,335Rank: 17th
The average salary ranks 17th among states in the country. There were also job openings from employers like Randstad.

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$14,000

$211,000

Salary Distribution
DC$88,570Rank: 7th
The average salary ranks 7th among states in the country. There were also job openings from employers like American Association of State Colleges and Universities and American University.

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$22,000

$198,000

Salary Distribution
Florida$68,473Rank: 21st
The average salary ranks 21st among states in the country. There were also job openings from employers like Broward College, Blue Team Restoration, Valencia College, and Florida Gulf Coast University.

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$14,000

$185,000

Salary Distribution
Georgia$75,738Rank: 15th
The average salary ranks 15th among states in the country. There were also job openings from employers like Emory University, Georgia State University, and Mackenzie Stuart Ltd.

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$14,000

$190,000

Salary Distribution
Illinois$87,770Rank: 9th
The average salary ranks 9th among states in the country. There were also job openings from employers like Rock Valley College, InsightsNow Inc., and Hamilton Mayer.

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$14,000

$228,000

Salary Distribution
Kansas$69,669Rank: 20th
The average salary ranks 20th among states in the country. There were also job openings from employers like A-1CAREERS, A-1 Careers, and University of Kansas.

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$30,000

$124,000

Salary Distribution
Louisiana$75,412Rank: 16th
The average salary ranks 16th among states in the country. There were also job openings from employers like State of Louisiana.

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$14,000

$194,000

Salary Distribution
Massachusetts$70,800Rank: 19th
The average salary ranks 19th among states in the country. There were also job openings from employers like Middlesex Community College, North Shore Community College, and Biobehavioral Family Studies Lab.

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$14,000

$176,000

Salary Distribution
Maryland$85,077Rank: 11th
The average salary ranks 11th among states in the country. There were also job openings from employers like DB Consulting Group, Resident Services, Inc, and Baltimore City Community College.

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$20,000

$193,000

Salary Distribution
Michigan$96,241Rank: 3rd
The average salary ranks 3rd among states in the country. There were also job openings from employers like The DAKO Group.

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$26,000

$209,000

Salary Distribution
Minnesota$98,051Rank: 2nd
The average salary ranks 2nd among states in the country. There were also job openings from employers like G. Peterson Consulting Group, Inc..

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$21,000

$231,000

Salary Distribution
Montana$46,495Rank: 26th
The average salary ranks 26th among states in the country. There were also job openings from employers like Montana State University Northern.

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$23,000

$70,000

Salary Distribution
New Jersey$87,862Rank: 8th
The average salary ranks 8th among states in the country. There were also job openings from employers like Biotech Partners.

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$21,000

$200,000

Salary Distribution
Nevada$64,203Rank: 22nd
The average salary ranks 22nd among states in the country. There were also job openings from employers like Jia Long Holdings LLC.

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$18,000

$137,000

Salary Distribution
New York$78,764Rank: 13th
The average salary ranks 13th among states in the country. There were also job openings from employers like New York City Department of Education, BOARD OF CORRECTION, City of New York, and DEPT OF DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION.

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$15,000

$193,000

Salary Distribution
Oklahoma$42,570Rank: 27th
The average salary ranks 27th among states in the country. There were also job openings from employers like Citizen Potawatomi Nation.

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$21,000

$68,000

Salary Distribution
Pennsylvania$86,669Rank: 10th
The average salary ranks 10th among states in the country. There were also job openings from employers like University of Pittsburgh.

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$15,000

$218,000

Salary Distribution
Tennessee$90,984Rank: 5th
The average salary ranks 5th among states in the country. There were also job openings from employers like Technology Resource Group Inc.

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$19,000

$216,000

Salary Distribution
Texas$103,706Rank: 1st
The average salary ranks 1st among states in the country. There were also job openings from employers like Confidential – Our Employees Are Aware of This Post, VetReady, Lee College, and COASTAL BEND COLLEGE.

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$19,000

$255,000

Salary Distribution
Virginia$89,332Rank: 6th
The average salary ranks 6th among states in the country. There were also job openings from employers like Virginia Community College System and ITAC Solutions, LLC.

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$21,000

$203,000

Salary Distribution
Vermont$53,894Rank: 24th
The average salary ranks 24th among states in the country. There were also job openings from employers like State of Vermont.

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$14.05

$42.20

Salary Distribution
Washington$78,679Rank: 14th
The average salary ranks 14th among states in the country. There were also job openings from employers like Bellevue College, Everett Community College, Phoenix Art Restoration, and CyberCoders.

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$20,000

$175,000

Salary Distribution
Wisconsin$56,648Rank: 23rd
The average salary ranks 23rd among states in the country. There were also job openings from employers like University of Wisconsin–Madison.

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$14,000

$153,000

Salary Distribution

Top 20 National Employers

According to Indeed.com, the following states had employers looking to hire a Project Director. The quoted salary figure represents the average salary from all job postings by this employer.

Employer NameLocationAverage Salary

Learn More

Related Careers

Career NameAverage Salary

Henry Steele
Managing Editor
Henry is Managing Editor of BusinessStudent.com. He is a seasoned business professional who regularly consults with local business's throughout Southern California. Henry pursued his undergrad in Business and Economics at the University of San Diego and gained valuable life changing experience through a unique internship upon graduation.

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