A product owner has a critical role in product development: guiding projects and liaising between teams to ensure the finished product meets users’ needs. Explore the average product owner salary and factors that can impact what you might earn.
A product owner is a member of the leadership team who oversees the development process for a product. This individual collaborates with other teams working on the project, including development, marketing, and design, to ensure the product satisfies all the business’s objectives and end user’s needs.
The work is fast-paced, and you can be well compensated for your contributions. Learn more about the average product owner’s salary and what can impact earnings to help plot your journey.
A product owner works on a product development team to manage the product backlog and delegate tasks to complete production. The role originates from the Scrum framework, which was created to channel communication between the product development team and other project stakeholders.
As a product owner, you hold an essential position within the product lifecycle, from ideation to launch.
Product owners primarily focus on the product vision, which drives the direction and motivation for a product. By focusing on the product vision rather than resource management, time, and expenses, product owners can prioritize a business's and end users' needs. In this job, you’ll create and maintain the product roadmap, prioritize requirements and features, and leverage user feedback to validate the product.
Other product owner responsibilities may include the following:
Plan program increments: Gather research about each phase of product development, ensure the team moves through each iteration smoothly, and address any issues.
Manage backlogs: Keep track of and organize product requests and the priorities, responses, and assignments for each request.
Collaborate with release management: Tend to tasks related to product release, such as marketing, support, timing, priority, pricing, training, and communication.
Assess quality: Maintain the product’s quality throughout the lifecycle and ensure all team members understand the product vision so they can implement it.
Checking the average compensation across several data sources can offer a comprehensive view of your expectations. Check out the average salary for a product owner according to December 2024 data from four reputable job posting websites in the chart below [1, 2, 3, 4]:
Payscale | Zippia | Glassdoor | ZipRecruiter |
---|---|---|---|
$98,674 | $97,070 | $110,242 | $112,891 |
Education, years of experience, industry, and location may contribute to how much you make as a product owner. Explore how these can impact a product owner’s salary.
Organizations typically seek product owners with at least a bachelor's degree in a related field, such as business or computer science. According to a Zippia survey, 67.2 percent of all product owners have a bachelor’s degree, and another 22.7 percent have at least a master’s degree [5]. Of those surveyed, 5 percent had just an associate degree, which suggests you can get into this field without a four-year education [5].
Let’s look at how education impacts the average product owner's salary [2]:
Associate degree: $88,714
Bachelor’s degree: $99,875
Master’s degree: $110,067
You develop new skills, knowledge, and expertise as you work in any job. Additionally, as you build your professional background, it can also positively impact your salary, as outlined below [2]:
Entry-level: $72,100
Mid-level: $77,000
Senior-level: $175,000
Your salary may also vary by the industry in which you work. These might include manufacturing, technology, finance, and more. The five highest-paying industries hiring product owners as of December 2024 are [2]:
Manufacturing: $108,319
Technology: $106,262
Automotive: $101,321
Professional: $96,919
Finance: $96,330
Location can also impact your salary, as many organizations adjust their salaries in certain areas to compensate for the cost of living, taxes, demand for that role, and more. If you want to maximize your income, consider one of the five highest-paying cities in the United States for product owners [2]:
San Francisco, CA: $127,613
Seattle, WA: $108,196
New York, NY: $101,561
Portland, OR: $101,160
Philadelphia, PA: $99,433
Demand for these roles is steadily growing, with opportunities across all sectors. The Institute of Product Leadership notes a year-over-year increase in demand for product owners across multiple industries and reports. [6]. While this offers a look at product management as a whole, it also suggests a promising outlook for roles under that umbrella.
As companies increasingly embrace Agile methodologies, evolving technologies, and customer-focused approaches, having skilled professionals who can define the vision and execute the strategy while keeping everything aligned with the big picture will remain vital.
Product owners and product managers have similar roles, as they both help guide teams through steps to reach a goal. Since the responsibilities for the two roles overlap, some companies hire one person to perform both roles. However, some product owners may have product management responsibilities, and many product managers typically do not have product owner responsibilities.
Product managers tend to focus on strategies to align the product with the company's or customer's goals, while product owners usually focus on the tasks the development team needs to complete to meet those goals. Product managers outline and develop the product management process during the product lifecycle and tend to have grander organizational goals in mind during the process. They also observe marketplace trends and handle more general details such as the timeline and projected costs.
Product owners focus on the backlog, optimize team performance, and manage communication between the developing team and stakeholders. The role is relatively new, as its creation aimed to fill the gap between development teams and customers. As a product owner, you’ll help maximize a product's value and develop customer stories to guide the Scrum team in making user-focused product development decisions.
In terms of pay, a product manager’s average salary is slightly higher at $111,729 annually [7].
Product owners can work in various industries, but many work in the technology field since they tend to work closely with developers. However, you'll also find product owners in manufacturing, health care, finance, and more.
Take a look at some of the highest-paying companies for product owners as of December 2024 [2]:
ORIX USA: $157,177
Dotdash: $149,722
Pacific Investment Management Company, LLC: $149,095
Apple: $145,751
The Walt Disney Company: $143,536
SoFi: $142,775
Safeway: $142,727
Rivian: $141,909
A career as a product owner can be rewarding and fast-moving, making it ideal for those who strive in these types of positions. The salary is competitive, though where you work, your geographic location and your background may impact those numbers.
If this is a good fit for you, continue learning and building your skills. For example, you might consider checking out IBM’s Introduction to Agile Development and Scrum on Coursera to learn more about product backlogs, the sprint planning process, and the general Scrum framework. You may also benefit from the University of Virginia’s Digital Product Management Specialization course series on Coursera. These courses target current and new product managers.
To learn project management basics further, check out the Google Project Management: Professional Certificate on Coursera to build valuable skills and explore Scrum roles.
Payscale. “Average Product Owner Salary, https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Product_Owner/Salary?loggedIn.” Accessed December 3, 2024.
Zippia. “Product Owner Salary, https://www.zippia.com/product-owner-jobs/salary/.” Accessed December 3, 2024.
Glassdoor. “How much does a Product Owner make?, https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/us-product-owner-salary-SRCH_IL.0,2_IN1_KO3,16.htm?clickSource=searchBtn.” Accessed December 3, 2024.
ZipRecruiter. “Product Owner Salary, https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Product-Owner-Salary#Yearly.” Accessed December 3, 2024.
Zippia. “How To Become a Product Owner, https://www.zippia.com/product-owner-jobs/how-to-become-a-product-owner/.” Accessed December 3, 2024.
Institute of Product Leadership. “Product Owner Career Path, https://www.productleadership.com/product-owner-career-path/.” Accessed December 3, 2024.
Zippia. “Product Manager Salary,” https://www.zippia.com/product-manager-jobs/salary/.” Accessed December 3, 2024.
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