What we know about globaldev director-level salaries

Salaries for global development roles depend on factors ranging from location to type of organization or sector. Most organizations have salary grids to structure how much they pay their employees, but not all of them are public. Since last year, Devex has encouraged recruiters to include salary information in their job postings, which we make highly visible to job seekers. These are displayed in different currencies and time frames — by hour, day, month, or year. Our aim is to provide insights to both job seekers and recruiters and foster a globaldev culture of salary transparency. At the time of writing, about 20% of postings on Devex’s job board include salary information. Using the data we’ve collected so far, we’ve produced the first in a series of articles highlighting salary trends across the development sector. For this first analysis, we studied over 200 director-level jobs published on our board over the second half of 2021 that are based in the United States. The job titles analyzed included director, deputy director, associate or assistant director, and senior director. We focused on three U.S. locations that tend to be home to several director-level positions — New York, California, and Washington, D.C. Of these regions, Washington-based director positions had the highest average annual salary of $145,000, followed by New York at $135,000, and California at $124,000. It’s worth noting that the World Bank and several U.S. government offices are based in the nation’s capital, while the United Nations is headquartered in New York. What types of director-level positions are most in-demand? Almost a quarter of the director-level positions published were related to specific development sectors and programs, including nutrition, gender and social inclusion, energy, private sector finance, and climate justice. These positions offered salaries with an average range of $118,000 to $160,000 per year. Among the top-salaried director-level jobs available during the timeframe analyzed was a global trade director position in an intergovernmental organization. This job offered an annual range of $243,000 to $364,000. Another posting for a health director position with an international NGO offered between $220,000 and $250,000. On the lower end of the spectrum, an associate director position for an international humanitarian organization promised between $70,000 and $92,000 annually, and an associate director for sexual and reproductive health and rights with another INGO offered between $75,000 and $125,000. Over 20% of the positions were related to business development roles, including directors for resource mobilization, philanthropy, and digital fundraising. The average annual range across these positions was between $106,000 and $133,000. Annually, the salary floor for these jobs was $70,000, offered by a private tech company for a USG partnerships director role, and the maximum salary stated reached $200,000 — from another private tech company for a similar role as director of institutional partnerships. Almost 10% of the director-level positions were related to communications and advocacy, with an average annual salary range of $113,000 to $143,000, with one INGO offering as much as $250,000. Over 6% of total director positions were related to human resources, including one for a diversity, equity and inclusion – or DEI – role, with an average range of $114,000 to $129,000. Salary differences across different organizations The organizations offering salaries on the lower end of the average range were mainly nonprofit employers. These annual salaries ranged from $90,000 to $102,000. The lowest salary from this group was for a deputy field director role at $65,000, while one executive director position reached $160,000. INGOs, which represented 39% of all director-level positions analyzed, had an average annual salary between $110,000 to $138,000 — with a maximum salary listed at $275,000 for a global policy and advocacy managing director role. Private sector companies working on global development, including USAID contractors, tech startups, and social investment funds, didn’t post high salaries as one might expect, compared to other types of organizations. The average spanned from $114,000 to $138,000, topping out at $215,000 annually for a director of research post at a consulting company working at the intersection of data, policy, and tech. While they only represent 4% of all the positions analyzed, education and research organizations, such as universities and think tanks, had a slightly higher average salary, and a higher minimum salary, for director-level roles than nongovernmental organizations. The average was between $122,000 and $153,000, with a minimum salary offered at $90,000, and a maximum of $230,000. Among the top salaries we studied were jobs posted by U.S. government agencies — with an average annual range of $123,000 to $165,000, with the highest being $199,300 — and intergovernmental institutions, which represented about a third of the positions analyzed. The average annual salary range for these fell between $145,000 and $187,000. Interested in salary transparency and other globaldev career topics? We’d like to know more about what you think. Fill in this short survey to provide your thoughts.