---
title: "Defense Acquisition Program Manager"
description: "Manages the cost, schedule and performance of a military system, such as an aircraft, ship, satellite or software program, from requirement to fielding."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/defense-acquisition-program-manager"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Defense Acquisition Program Manager

**Category:** Business and Financial Operations · **SOC code:** 13-1082 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 13-1082.00

Manages the cost, schedule and performance of a military system, such as an aircraft, ship, satellite or software program, from requirement to fielding.

Also advertised as: Defense Program Manager; DoD Program Manager; Acquisition Program Manager; Weapons Systems Program Manager; Program Executive.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $102,320 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $49.19/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $61,580 to $167,970, with the middle half between $78,440 and $133,100
- **Total US employment:** 1,066,670
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +6.7% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 76,500 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 19/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 1,066,670 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $61,580 |
| 25th | $78,440 |
| 50th (median) | $102,320 |
| 75th | $133,100 |
| 90th | $167,970 |
| Mean (average) | $110,740 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| WA | $124,160 | $116,023 | 36,240 |
| NJ | $122,980 | $113,028 | 28,300 |
| DE | $122,190 | $122,425 | 1,770 |
| NY | $121,040 | $112,156 | 68,020 |
| CA | $120,910 | $109,203 | 114,380 |
| VA | $120,840 | $119,520 | 43,860 |
| MA | $114,190 | $107,974 | 21,960 |
| CO | $110,050 | $106,791 | 32,390 |
| NM | $106,970 | $116,004 | 4,330 |
| OR | $105,480 | $102,050 | 19,380 |
| CT | $105,240 | $101,573 | 8,410 |
| DC | $104,900 | $95,450 | 5,170 |
| RI | $104,680 | $102,346 | 3,880 |
| MD | $104,040 | $99,124 | 30,530 |
| IL | $103,470 | $103,513 | 27,180 |

39 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 54 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/defense-acquisition-program-manager/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/defense-acquisition-program-manager.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 1,094,300 in the 2025–2035 base year to 1,167,400 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 73,200 jobs, or +6.7%. Faster than average: 6.7% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 76,500 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

## What the work involves

- Lead a program office responsible for a military system
- Build and defend program budgets through the federal budget cycle
- Oversee contractor cost, schedule and technical performance
- Manage technical, schedule and cost risks
- Prepare for milestone and design reviews with senior leaders
- Coordinate requirements with military users and engineers
- Approve test plans and review test results
- Report program status to leadership and Congress

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Management of Personnel Resources — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- English Language — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Personnel and Human Resources — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Enterprising (E), Conventional (C), Investigative (I).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| E — Enterprising | 6.30 |
| C — Conventional | 5.60 |
| I — Investigative | 3.46 |
| S — Social | 3.32 |
| A — Artistic | 1.57 |
| R — Realistic | 1.48 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ESTJ | 75.4 |
| ESFJ | 71.4 |
| ENTJ | 66.5 |
| ENFJ | 59.8 |
| ESTP | 58.1 |

Best-fitting types: ESTJ, ESFJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Project Management Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/project-management-specialist) — median $102,320
- [Information Technology Project Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/information-technology-project-manager) — median $116,580
- [Management Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/management-analyst) — median $101,860
- [IT Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/it-manager) — median $175,140
- [Logistician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/logistician) — median $82,320
- [Administrative Services Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/administrative-services-manager) — median $114,130
- [General and Operations Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/general-and-operations-manager) — median $105,770
- [Training and Development Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/training-and-development-manager) — median $133,000
- [Construction Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/construction-manager) — median $114,990
- [Operations Research Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/operations-research-analyst) — median $88,940

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/defense-acquisition-program-manager