--- title: "Project Management Specialist" description: "Analyze and coordinate the schedule, timeline, procurement, staffing, and budget of a product or service on a per project basis. Lead and guide the work…" canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/project-management-specialist" last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z" --- # Project Management Specialist **Category:** Business and Financial Operations · **SOC code:** 13-1082 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 13-1082.00 Analyze and coordinate the schedule, timeline, procurement, staffing, and budget of a product or service on a per project basis. Lead and guide the work of technical staff. May serve as a point of contact for the client or customer. ## 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:** +5.6% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034) - **Annual job openings:** 78,200 openings a year - **AI-resilience score:** not scored for this occupation ## 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/project-management-specialist/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/project-management-specialist. ## Outlook BLS projects employment to move from 1,046,300 in the 2024–2034 base year to 1,105,000 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 58,700 jobs, or +5.6%. Faster than average: 5.6% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 78,200 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034. ## 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 - Assign duties or responsibilities to project personnel. - Communicate with key stakeholders to determine project requirements and objectives. - Confer with project personnel to identify and resolve problems. - Create project status presentations for delivery to customers or project personnel. - Develop or update project plans including information such as objectives, technologies, schedules, funding, and staffing. - Identify project needs such as resources, staff, or finances by reviewing project objectives and schedules. - Identify, review, or select vendors or consultants to meet project needs. - Monitor costs incurred by project staff to identify budget issues. ## 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), Social (S). | Interest area | Score (1–7) | | --- | --- | | E — Enterprising | 6.30 | | C — Conventional | 5.55 | | S — Social | 3.32 | | I — Investigative | 2.75 | | 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 | 76.2 | | ESFJ | 74.5 | | ENTJ | 65.4 | | ENFJ | 61.5 | | ESTP | 58.3 | Best-fitting types: ESTJ, ESFJ. ## Related occupations O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order. - [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 - [Logistics Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/logistics-analyst) — median $82,320 ## Sources - **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 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, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/ - **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/ - **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 30.3 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/project-management-specialist