Product management salary Germany
Product managing director – a well-paid job

Product managing directors are required wherever products are manufactured or sold. This not only applies to the consumer sector, but also research, for example the pharmaceutical industry, chemical and technical sectors. A demanding job with good potential development – professionally and financially. 

What can junior product managing directors expect to earn in Germany at the start of their career?

University graduates often begin their careers as assistant product managing directors. The usual starting salary for this position is between €38,000 and €45,000 gross per year. The next level on the career ladder is junior managing director: Junior product managing directors receive a salary of €50,000 to €60,000 annually.

How much does a project managing director earn in Germany?

According to the online portal Gehaltsvergleich.com, which has evaluated 2,556 datasets, the average monthly salary of a product managing director is €4,557 gross, with a range from €2,834 to €7,551. Here, income is largely determined by the sales potential of the responsible product area. Essentially, however, the starting salary in product management is not poor – and the earnings increase with growing professional experience.

Increasing professional experience often goes hand in hand with climbing the career ladder. Those striving to reach higher levels who take over responsibility for sales and the budget as a product manager can expect to earn more than €70,000 a year, according to the web portal Gehaltsreporter.de. Specialists with international experience and personnel responsibility in large companies in the branded goods industry sometimes earn an annual gross salary of €140,000. Depending on the sector, company location and size, it may be possible to earn an additional €10,000 if the product manager works directly under the board of management as head of marketing.

Which sectors have the highest salaries?

Product managers in the pharmaceutical industry earn the most. In this area, the average earnings for a marketing specialist with personnel responsibility is more than €130,000 per year, according to Gehaltsreporter.de. The consumer goods industry, automobiles, electrical engineering and banks also offer high salaries. A product manager in medical technology in turn earns, according to the online portal Gehalt.de an annual salary of between €48,433 and €76,774, in the chemical industry an average of between €45,000 to €75,677 and in the IT sector between €45,560 and €73,156.

Whatever the industry, company size generally has an influence on salary. A product managing director without personnel responsibility in a company with up to 500 employees receives €3,743 per month. In a company that employs up to 1,000 people, they will earn €4,492 on average, while in a corporate group with over 1,000 employees, they earn €5,508. Those who intend to work as a project managing director in the field of science will usually be paid according to the collective agreement for the civil service (TVoeD). The salary levels E12 and E13 are common.

In which federal states do product managers earn the most?

The average salaries in Germany range between €3,592 in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to €5,461 in Hesse. If you are flexible about where you live and are willing to move for a higher salary, you should head south – or to Hamburg. In the Hanseatic city, the gross monthly income is €5,010, which is only slightly lower than in Baden-Wuerttemberg (€5,211) and Bavaria (€5,054). In the east of the country, on the other hand, product managers receive a significantly lower salary (of between €3,592 and €3,794).