Top 11 Cities for Project Management

Top 11 Cities for Project Management on A Girls Guide to Project Management, December 9, 2020.

Washington DC area

The DMV (Washington DC, Maryland, Northern Virginia) is one of the biggest markets for project managers in the world. The Washington-Baltimore metro area supports 5 PMI Chapters and the DC Chapter is the largest in the world with over 10,000 members.

There wouldn’t be that concentration of project managers if there wasn’t work to keep them all busy. Here are some of the major projects going on:

  • Turning the 11th Street Bridge into an elevated public park at an estimated US$74million
  • Renovation of the Lincoln Memorial: This US$25m project will add new services and activate the space below the monument
  • Huge multi-hundred thousand US$ investments in retail, residential and commercial buildings, in part to meet the DC housing shortage
  • Federal government initiatives
  • Health sciences-related projects at the National Institutes of Health and Johns Hopkins University.

Amazon Web Services is headquartered in the area and Amazon also selected Arlington for its HQ2, so there is a wide range of technical projects happening in the private sector too.

A job search for project managers in the DC metropolitan area shows there are nearly 4,000 openings. With its robust economy and diverse set of industries, there seems to always be work for good project managers, and with salaries for US project managers amongst the highest in the world, it’s a booming city.

Washington DC map

A voice from the city

“The Project Management Day of Service (PM DOS) was started here and hosts one of the largest events in the country,” says Alan Zucker, Founding Principal at Project Management Essentials. “Each winter hundreds of project managers volunteer their time to help non-profits with their business needs. This is an uplifting event where project managers can see their value and impact in just a day.”

Alan says that while many people primarily associate the region with the federal government, the area is brimming with exciting jobs in multiple industries.

“The Agile project management community is very strong,” he says. “Organizations of all sizes are using Agile to deliver value quickly. Agile is being used by small technology companies, Fortune 100 financial services companies, and many federal agencies. AgileDC is a 1-day workshop held each fall where people from around the region share their best practices.”

There are plenty of other events going on in the area too, many hosted by the local PMI Chapters. “Multiple workshops, dinners, meetups, and webinars are held each week, along with several professional development days,” Alan says.

He came to DC for college and never left. “The area has many wonderful neighborhoods and places to live with great restaurants, museums, music, and cultural attractions” Alan says. “The area is very diverse with people from around the world working together to do great things.”