Career Overview: Within the DoD Contracting one of the most visible, challenging and prevalent careers is that of a Project Manager. Project Managers come from many different educational and career backgrounds. The main objective of project managers is to lead a team of matrixed resources in the accomplishment of program objectives classified as a project. Project durations can span in duration from months to multi-years. Most projects are accomplished in a year or less, have a specified start and stop date, and are established to deliver a specific outcome. Project examples include upgrading a major software system, updating a radar system, deploying a new satellite, and overhauling a fleet of military vehicles to name a few.
Project management requires excellent leadership, communications and people skills. Most successful project managers have held leadership positions in their career (team leader, shift leader, squad leader, platoon leader, etc.) Likewise, it helps if the project manager has technical knowledge relating to the projects they are leading. For example, for large software systems upgrades ideal project managers would have a background in software systems development, support or migration. Similarly, for projects related to fielding a new radar system, project managers with a background in radar systems would ideal candidates to lead these types of projects.
In addition to having domain knowledge of the projects they are leading, projects managers also require education and experience with several supporting disciplines to include, contracting, purchasing, procurement, vendor relations, budgeting, systems engineering, and systems testing to name a few. Also, Project Management requires excellent leadership skills, strong emotional intelligence, and an ability to deal with dynamic and changing business environments and still deliver quality, on time and on budget projects.
Career Path: Entry-level project managers usually have a background in the career field of the project they are assigned to lead and start out running a single small, less complex project of about $100k to $300k in value and three to six months in duration. After a project manager proves themselves they are given larger more complex projects to lead or multiple smaller projects to lead concurrently.
Mid-level project managers are usually assigned multiple complex projects from $1-$10M in value to run and Senior level project managers compete for and are assigned the largest or most complex projects to run $10M- $50M+ in value. Likewise, Senior Level project managers are sometimes assigned Entry Level and Mid-Level project managers to help lead large complex projects. The project sizes here are just estimates, but should provide a general guide of the responsibilities of project managers.
Career progression for project managers beyond Senior-Level project manager includes Project Management Organization (PMO) manager or leader or often times project managers are promoted in to Program Manager positions.
Salaries: Project Manager salaries vary by region and project complexity, but start around ~$60k for entry level project managers and can be in excess of $150k for Senior level project managers.
Professional Organizations: The Project Management Institute (PMI) is one of the leading professional organizations for Project Managers
Training & Certifications: For project managers the main civilian credential that aids career progression and is often a requirement for defense contractor project management jobs is the Professional Project Manager (PMP) certification.
Eric A. Wright, Ph.D, PMP is founder and CEO of Vets2PM and has created a 35 hour program and course to help veterans convert their military experience to civilian project management experience and to study for and pass the PMI project management Professional exam to obtain the PMP certification. The program also provides students with multiple other benefits such as resume help and interview skills workshop. Check out the VetstoPM resource for more information.
Additionally, formal training in Earned Value Management System (EVMS) from companies like Humphreys & Associates or available via the Defense Acquisition University (DAU) is invaluable. Likewise, while not required, but very helpful is the completion of the Defense Acquisition University Program Management training offered to Military and DoD civilian workforce. Similarly, most large DoD contractors have their own internal project management training course that is provided to new project managers or promising project management candidates.
Education: Most project manager positions require a bachelor degree, but there are many that do not. In my experience, having a bachelor degree in a related discipline for the projects you want to lead will help candidates be more competitive when competing for project manager jobs.
Job Search: To review currently open project manager jobs that DoD contractors are actively hiring for I recommend going to the career page of several of the DoD contractors profiled on this site and searching for jobs with the titles “Project Manager” or “Project Engineer” and review the jobs and job requirements that come up.