Project Manager Jobs in Chicago, IL

Government data shows strong pay at the broad management level in Chicago: the 2025 median was $131,890, the 25th percentile was $92,180, and the 75th percentile was $179,330. But that broad family includes many senior management jobs; the more comparable local occupation-specific figure for project management specialists was $104,220 in the older 2023 metro series, while current posted ranges in the sampled market center on about $105k to $145k.

Full September 2026 market report

Advertised pay

Across the 1,482 openings that disclose pay, the advertised range midpoint runs $94,000 at the 25th percentile, $125,875 at the median and $158,697 at the 75th. These are advertised ranges, not earned pay.

Active openings as of November 10, 2026

Senior roles | Entry level | Remote | Posted this week

Live from the Callings.ai index of over 13 million postings, refreshed hourly and re-checked here nightly. Roles that close are dropped at the next refresh.

Showing 30 of 250+ openings.

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What our analysts see this month

Competitive market | next 3-6 months

Chicago is still a real market for this category, with more than 1,400 recent postings across more than 900 companies, but it is not an easy one. Metro unemployment was 5.2% in August 2026 and the metro employment level was down 2.9257% year-over-year, which raises the bar for landing office-based roles. At the same time, Illinois management, product & project postings were up 5.8% year-over-year while statewide employment in the category was essentially flat, pointing to selective and replacement hiring rather than broad expansion. Pay is attractive, but most sampled openings skew mid-to-senior and about 95% are on-site or hybrid.

Best positioned: Your best odds are as a mid-career PM, program manager, or product-adjacent operator who can show delivery ownership, stakeholder management, risk management, budget management, and comfort with hybrid or on-site work.

Main caution: Do not anchor on the metro's $150,130 broad-management mean wage as if it were a typical product or project offer; current posted ranges center more around about $105k to $145k, and the occupation-specific project-management median in the local BLS series was $104,220.

From the September 2026 market report

Who is hiring here

Counted across all 1,768 openings in this market. 10 of the employers below are hiring for more than one role right now.

1. AbbVie: 37 open roles
2. JLL: 19 open roles
3. Integral Ltd.: 14 open roles
4. Northwestern Memorial Hospital: 14 open roles
5. Edward Elmhurst Health: 12 open roles
6. Vizient, Inc.: 12 open roles
7. Advocate Health Care: 11 open roles
8. Endeavor Health: 11 open roles
9. Publicis Groupe: 11 open roles
10. Northern Trust Corp: 10 open roles

Where the openings are

• Chicago: 939
• Downers Grove: 37
• North Chicago: 36
• Naperville: 35
• Oak Brook: 34
• Lisle: 24
• Waukegan: 23
• Rosemont: 22

Work arrangement

on-site 1,088 (62%), hybrid 579 (33%), remote 85 (5%)

Where the demand is

Opportunity is broad across employers but not broad across subtypes. Over the last 90 days, the market showed more than 1,400 postings across more than 900 companies, and the employer pattern was fragmented rather than dominated by one firm. That is good for persistence, but it also means you need a tighter target list because the same search results mix true PM or product work with neighboring specialist tracks. The biggest concentration warning is industry mix. About 40% of sampled postings sat in construction and about 10% in civil engineering, both of which often drift into specialist project categories outside this page's core scope. For general management, product, and project seekers, the cleaner pools are software development at about 15%, financial services at about 10%, and IT services and IT consulting at about 10%. Recent local signals reinforce that focus: Codal said it planned up to 40 additional hires and explicitly named project manager and product manager openings, while Morningstar said it had more than 1,500 Chicago employees and planned to keep hiring local talent.

• Software development and digital delivery (high): About 15% of sampled postings sat in software development, making this one of the clearest in-scope lanes for product, program, TPM, and delivery work.
• Financial-services PMO and transformation (moderate): Financial services accounted for about 10% of sampled postings, and Northern Trust Corp appeared among the more consistently active named employers in the sample.
• IT services and consulting (moderate): IT services and IT consulting made up about 10% of the sample, and Codal's recent expansion signal directly included project manager and product manager openings.
• Construction and civil-engineering project work (limited): Construction at about 40% and civil engineering at about 10% create visible volume in search results, but many of these roles belong in neighboring specialist tracks rather than this category's core generalist product and project market.

Where to focus: Focus on mid-career hybrid or on-site roles in software, digital consulting, and financial-services PMO or product teams, and aggressively filter out construction or engineering-project listings unless you intentionally want that specialist lane.

Roles worth searching next

• Management Analyst: It overlaps with stakeholder influence, problem-solving, and organizational improvement work, and the national outlook is sizable at about 94,100 projected annual openings with a U.S. median wage of $101,860.
• Business Analyst: Local demand emphasizes data analysis, stakeholder management, and strategic planning, which makes business analysis a realistic bridge for candidates without direct PM titles.
• Implementation Consultant: IT services and consulting account for about 10% of the sample, and Codal's expansion linked PM and product openings with client-facing technical delivery roles.
• Operations Analyst: Candidates who already do budgeting, data analysis, stakeholder coordination, and strategic planning can often reposition into operations analysis faster than into fully competitive PM or product searches.

What postings ask for

• Project management (table_stakes | immediate): Project management appeared in about 45% of sampled postings, making it the baseline signal employers expect before they care about tools or industry flavor. Who: Everyone in this category, especially applicants coming from analyst or operations backgrounds.
• Stakeholder management (differentiator | immediate): Stakeholder management showed up in about 20% of sampled postings, which makes it a strong separator between resume screen-outs and interview calls. Who: Mid-career PMs, career switchers, and anyone selling cross-functional leadership.
• Risk management (differentiator | immediate): Risk management appeared in about 15% of sampled postings, signaling that employers want people who can prevent misses, not just track status. Who: Program managers, implementation leads, and PMO candidates.
• Budget management (differentiator | immediate): Budget management appeared in about 15% of sampled postings, and it is one of the clearest ways to prove business ownership instead of task coordination. Who: Candidates aiming for senior PM, program, or portfolio roles.
• Product management (premium | near-term): Product management appeared in about 10% of sampled postings, so it is not table stakes across the whole category, but it raises your odds in the software and consulting slice of the market. Who: Project or program managers trying to move closer to software, platforms, or digital products.
• Data analysis (differentiator | near-term): Data analysis appeared in about 10% of sampled postings and is one of the most useful bridges into product-adjacent or strategy-heavy roles. Who: Career switchers, business analysts, and PMs who need a stronger decision-making story.

Questions about this market

What do Management, Product & Project roles pay in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN?

Government data shows strong pay at the broad management level in Chicago: the 2025 median was $131,890, the 25th percentile was $92,180, and the 75th percentile was $179,330. But that broad family includes many senior management jobs; the more comparable local occupation-specific figure for project management specialists was $104,220 in the older 2023 metro series, while current posted ranges in the sampled market center on about $105k to $145k. This is still a good-paying market, especially relative to Illinois all-occupation offered pay of ~$69,364 and statewide new-opening pay for this category of ~$102,873 (n=3,911).

Where is demand for Management, Product & Project roles in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN concentrated?

Opportunity is broad across employers but not broad across subtypes. Over the last 90 days, the market showed more than 1,400 postings across more than 900 companies, and the employer pattern was fragmented rather than dominated by one firm. That is good for persistence, but it also means you need a tighter target list because the same search results mix true PM or product work with neighboring specialist tracks. The biggest concentration warning is industry mix. About 40% of sampled postings sat in construction and about 10% in civil engineering, both of which often drift into specialist project categories outside this page's core scope. For general management, product, and project seekers, the cleaner pools are software development at about 15%, financial services at about 10%, and IT services and IT consulting at about 10%. Recent local signals reinforce that focus: Codal said it planned up to 40 additional hires and explicitly named project manager and product manager openings, while Morningstar said it had more than 1,500 Chicago employees and planned to keep hiring local talent.

Which employers are hiring the most Management, Product & Project talent in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN?

Recent postings show the most activity from ARCO/Murray (15 postings), JLL (15 postings), Burns & McDonnell (10 postings), Epic (10 postings), Exelon (10 postings). See the full market report for the complete employer landscape.

Can Management, Product & Project roles in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN be done remotely?

Of recent postings, 5% are remote and 35% hybrid, with 60% on-site. Use the Remote filter above to see only remote openings.

How current are these listings?

Openings come from the Callings.ai live index of over 13 million jobs, refreshed hourly. This page searches postings from the last 30 days; run the search yourself to filter by anything else in plain language.

Browse Chicago, IL openings by job title

• Project Manager: 161 open roles statewide
• General Manager: 203 open roles statewide
• Senior Manager: 74 open roles statewide

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