Director of Product Development
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
A Director of Product Development is responsible for directing the overall product development of a business. This may include of developing the company strategy for the product, and collaborating with other directors from the engineering, marketing, sales, and operations departments in order to ensure that the strategy for the product aligns across the business.
Job Outlook
There were 178 Director of Product Development job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 6740 in the United States.
In combination with other careers in the Product Manager industry, which includes the Director of Product Development career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2016:
Salary
Many new Director of Product Development jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.
National
The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $176,649.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $171,875.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Director of Product Development postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $151,125.
Education and Experience
Posted Director of Product Development jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.
| Education Level | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Associate's Degree | 0% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 54.35% |
| Master's Degree | 32.54% |
| Doctoral Degree | 9.38% |
| Other | 2.34% |
Posted Director of Product Development jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Years of Experience | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 0 to 2 years | 4.47% |
| 3 to 5 years | 24.27% |
| 6 to 8 years | 28.59% |
| 9+ years | 42.67% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Director of Product Development positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.
Baseline Skills
A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.
- Leadership (56.41%)
- Communication (55.74%)
- Innovation (55.73%)
- Management (29.18%)
- Sales (28.22%)
- Influencing Skills (27.85%)
- Operations (26.99%)
- Problem Solving (26.88%)
- Research (25.64%)
- Customer Service (18.52%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- New Product Development (67.17%)
- Marketing (35.84%)
- Product Management (29.57%)
- Product Strategy (26.99%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Project Management (22.93%)
- Agile Methodology (16.33%)
- Market Research (18.02%)
- Product Roadmaps (14.98%)
- Go-to-Market Strategy (15.64%)
- Product Design (15.13%)
- Market Trend (18.38%)
- Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) (13.1%)
- Data Analysis (14.3%)
- Finance (12.46%)
- Product Lifecycle Management (14.14%)
- Continuous Improvement Process (13.38%)
- Commercialization (12.06%)
- Business Strategies (11.32%)
- Business Development (10.49%)
- Product Innovation (13.05%)
- Workflow Management (8.45%)
- Thought Leadership (8.78%)
- Scrum (Software Development) (6.57%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Director of Product Development skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Director of Innovation
- Innovation Manager
- Director of Product Strategy
- Director of Product
- Director of Product Innovation
- Vice President of Product
- Go-to-Market Project Manager
- Product Strategist
- Product Innovation Manager
- IT Director
Similar Occupations
If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Director of Product Development jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- PricewaterhouseCoopers (161)
- Nelnet (155)
- JPMorgan Chase (150)
- Meta (65)
- Amazon (62)
- Johnson & Johnson (55)
- Fidelity Investments (54)
- Cengage Learning (51)
- Nike (51)
- Merck & Co. (48)
North Carolina
- Epic Games (10)
- OneMain Financial (7)
- PricewaterhouseCoopers (6)
- Volvo (5)
- Grifols (5)
- Intone Networks (4)
- Trane Technologies (3)
- Siemens (3)
- Rvo Health (2)
- GovCIO (2)
NC State Programs Relevant to this Career
If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!
All wages, job posting statistics, employment trend projections, and information about skill desirability on this page represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is provided by and downloaded regularly from Lightcast. For more information about how Lightcast gathers data and what it represents, see Lightcast Data: Basic Overview on Lightcast's Knowledge Base website.