Find out why costs rose
Put costs beside output on a spreadsheet and ask department heads what shifted before you pick a fix.
Career profile
Operations Manager
Operations managers fit staffing, spending and daily work together across several departments.
Like tracing a holdup to its cause and picking the fix? This role gives you that, working mostly through supervisors to keep an organization running.
A day in the life
Add staff for a busy stretch
With team leaders, go through incoming work and the staff schedule, adding people when a rush needs more.
Chase a late shipment
Call the supplier about the overdue order, then weigh how the delay hits tomorrow's tasks and the budget.
Coach a team leader
Discuss a missed goal with a team leader, agree on one change, and later see whether results improved.
Quick facts
Degree + experience
United States · 2025
$105,770/year
United States · May 2025
5% projected growth
United States · 2025–2035
Quick orientation
Preparation, pay & outlook
Preparation
Degree + experienceTypical preparation is a bachelor's degree and at least five years of related work experience; employers' requirements vary.
Pay
$105,770/yearNational median for general and operations managers; equivalent to $50.85/hour.
Outlook
5% projected growthGeneral and operations managers have about 285,000 projected openings annually, averaged over 2025–2035.
Fit, tradeoffs & changing tools
You might like this if…
- You like checking numbers against what people say is happening.
- You can listen to competing requests and make a decision.
- You enjoy helping someone else become a better leader.
Things to weigh
- Work can stretch beyond 40 hours and into evenings or weekends.
- You're accountable for other people's results, including when resolving conflict is uncomfortable.
Where AI may help
Spreadsheets, reporting systems, and scheduling software help you compare results and organize work.
What people still lead
You decide which tradeoffs to accept and explain changes to the people affected.
What we can’t predict yet
How much future software will recommend staffing and spending decisions—and how much managers will need to check—remains uncertain.
Pay in context
Earnings
These figures cover the full U.S. general and operations manager occupation, across industries and levels of responsibility.
The median and spread
In May 2025, the median was $105,770 annually, or $50.85 hourly. The 10th-percentile wage was $50,090; the 90th was $253,390. These are wage percentiles, not starting and senior salaries.
Workplace changes the comparison
Annual medians were $151,040 in professional, scientific, and technical services and $75,860 in retail. Responsibilities differ across these settings.
Openings include replacements
About 285,000 openings are projected annually over 2025–2035. They include replacement needs as well as growth; they aren't a count of vacancies today.
Getting started
Combine college with management experience
- What the route involves
- Earn a bachelor's degree in business or a relevant field, then develop supervisory experience.
- What it can lead to
- This builds preparation for operations roles that recruit experienced managers.
Advance within an employer
- What the route involves
- Build experience in supervisory or lower management jobs within an organization.
- What it can lead to
- Internal promotion may let experience substitute for some education requirements.
- What to check
- That flexibility depends on the employer.
Plan on building related work experience before taking responsibility for an operation.
After entry
Career paths
This starts where the entry routes leave off: early work, growing capability, and advancement or specialization.
Get established
Learn the budget and reporting routine. Meet department leads and understand where their work depends on each other.
Handle wider improvements
Lead a project involving several teams, such as improving how work moves through a fulfillment site. Compare results with the original goal.
Move into higher management
Some general managers advance into higher management or executive positions.
Where you can work
Large retail stores
You connect stockroom work, shelf availability, and customer demand through team leaders. The sales floor makes problems visible quickly; schedules may include nights, weekends, and holidays.
- Indoors
- Shift work
Fulfillment and delivery sites
Delivery deadlines shape the day. You coordinate with safety, engineering, and staffing teams; some jobs involve long stretches walking the site, noise, and overnight shifts.
- Indoors
- Shift work
- Physical demands
- Safety-sensitive
Try it
See whether the job clicks before you commit to the path.
On paper, plan a school fundraiser with a fixed budget and six volunteers covering setup, sales, and cleanup. Then remove one volunteer and delay a supply delivery. Revise the plan and explain your choices. Notice whether balancing the whole operation interests you.
Sources
- O*NET OnLine. General and Operations Managers. Accessed 2026-10-03.
- O*NET OnLine. General and Operations Managers: Details. Accessed 2026-10-03.
- O*NET OnLine / U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. National Wages: General and Operations Managers. Accessed 2026-10-03.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Projections and Worker Characteristics, 2025–35. Accessed 2026-10-03.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Outlook Handbook: Top Executives. Accessed 2026-10-03.
- Target. Executive Team Leader of General Merchandise & Food Sales. Accessed 2026-10-03.
- Amazon. Operations Manager, Job ID 10501000. Accessed 2026-10-03.