Interested in taking an active and varied role to support the successful delivery of projects across an organisation? PMO administrator may be a good career choice. Here we explain what you need to be successful in a PMO administrator position and where the role could take you.

What is a PMO administrator?

In every project management office (PMO), there are support staff who coordinate the daily goings-on of the office while also managing internal communications, creating reports, maintaining systems, and generally supporting the PMO manager and their team.

That is the role of the PMO administrator.

Unlike project administrators and project coordinators, PMO administrators take on a more holistic role. They help to ensure the entire project management office runs smoothly – through administrative duties, secretarial support across projects, stakeholder management, resource planning and more. In this way, a PMO administrator is often responsible for tasks that can make all the difference to a PMO and its ability to promote consistent, high-quality delivery across the organisation.

Furthermore, because PMO administrators start their careers on the ‘ground floor’ of the project management office, they have a clear growth trajectory that can see them become PMO analysts, managers and even directors. Alternatively, they might consider sidestepping into an assistant project manager position with a view to taking on a project manager role down the track.

Day-to-day responsibilities of a PMO administrator

As the PMO administrator works in a supporting role for the entire project management office, their daily responsibilities are varied. Here are some of the key tasks you can expect to perform in this role:

• Scheduling and organising meetings, and taking minutes
• Maintaining issue logs and risk and dependency registers for projects
• Setting up workshops and training sessions and organising the necessary resources
• Maintaining systems for recording costs, timesheets, purchases and expenses and providing support for users
• Filing documentation and retrieving information on projects for other PMO team members
• Data entry for, and collation of, PMO reports
• Communicating with project leaders and key stakeholders across the organisation, and providing them with information, schedules and reports as requested.

Essential attributes of an effective PMO administrator

Like any position, thriving in a PMO administrator role requires a combination of knowledge, skills and behaviours. To hit the ground running, you’ll ideally be familiar with:

• common applications and tools (e.g. for logging/approving timesheets, POs etc)
• project management and general business terminology
• project delivery methods and frameworks (e.g. PRINCE2, AgilePM)
• the basics of corporate governance and assurance
• standard business processes and procedures.

Working across a diversity of tasks on any given day, you’ll also benefit from a rounded skill set. Some of the essential traits of an effective PMO administrator include:

• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Keen attention to detail
• Ability to multitask
• Strong interpersonal skills
• Excellent time management and organisation
• Networking skills
• Capable of wearing multiple hats
• Trustworthy and responsible.

Taking ownership of tasks and completing them to deadline is critical in this position. You’ll also need to communicate effectively with both your PMO colleagues and those in other business units, as well as with internal and external stakeholders at various levels.

Benefits of training and development

While most organisations won’t require you to hold a specific degree in order to work as a PMO administrator, you will get more out of the role – and open yourself up to broader career opportunities – by developing your skills and undertaking appropriate training and development.

PM-Partners’ Essentials for PMO Administrators course is designed for beginners who want to get a firmer understanding of project, programme and portfolio management (P3M) and the key roles within the project management office, as well as the fundamental knowledge and competencies needed to excel as a PMO administrator. The three-day course will set you up for success as you start your career in the project management office.

Growth outlook and career trajectory

While some may be content to remain as PMO administrator for an extended period, others may have the drive to progress up the ranks – perhaps with the ultimate goal of running the project management office entirely.

Roles you can develop into include:

• PMO analyst: Similar to PMO administrators, analysts often work within a PMO team supporting multiple projects or programmes. Typical tasks include creating detailed project plans, ensuring project budgets stay on track, parsing large amounts of project data, and providing insights from this data to identify areas of improvement. 

• PMO manager: Also known as PMO leads, PMO managers come in a variety of shapes and guises depending on the type of office they’re managing – project, programme or portfolio – and the people and scope of work it’s supporting. Ultimately, however, it’s their job to ensure the guidance and help their office provides actively contributes to successful delivery.

• PMO director: At the top of the PMO hierarchy sits the PMO director, a.k.a. ePMO manager or head of PMO who typically leads multiple PMOs, including their respective PMO managers and PMO staff. Working alongside senior management, this executive-level role is responsible for improving organisational delivery capabilities and ensuring all change activities are aligned to strategic goals.

In terms of industries you could work in, project management offices are found across the vast majority of medium to large organisations – and many have individual PMOs for different departments. Even smaller businesses that are running multiple projects concurrently tend to have a project management office. From manufacturing to financial services, IT, legal, government, marketing and sales, there are many different sectors to explore.

Salary expectations of a PMO administrator

As PMO administrators are in demand across most industries, the pay expectations will differ depending on your individual career pathway. For example, working for a small to medium-sized business may offer a lower initial salary but give you clearer opportunities for promotion and greater freedom in the role. Conversely, working as a PMO administrator for a large government entity may have a higher salary but not give you the same freedom as working in the private sector.

PMO administrators with some experience in this role may command a salary staring around $80,000 or more. As you progress from administrator to analyst to manager and finally director, the salary expectations inevitably increase.

According to PayScale, the average salary for a PMO analyst is just over $84,500, but that can rise to $124,000. For PMO managers, the average base salary is $133,787 according to the same guide, however for more senior positions you can expect that pay to approach $190,000 or more.

Entering the project management office as an administrator can set you up for a long and rewarding career. By starting out as a jack-of-all-trades that supports multiple projects and delivery practitioners every day, you will gain an incredible depth of knowledge about how PMOs operate – which will be highly beneficial if you decide to move into more advanced roles within, or beyond, a PMO team.

PM-Partners can help you achieve your PMO ambitions by getting you started with Essentials for PMO Administrators. For more information, contact one of our learning development experts or call us on 1300 70 13 14 today.