How to Hire a Project Manager
Last updated . Every number on this page was checked October 2, 2026.
To hire a project manager, write down the work that needs running, decide how big the job is, and ask each candidate how they've kept real projects on time. As an employee in Texas, a full-time project management specialist at the middle (median) wage costs $8,854.64 a month, and part time at 20 hours a week it's $4,439.48. Each figure is the wage plus employer taxes, before benefits (BLS May 2025 wages, 2026 tax rates). If your production work goes to an outside team, check what its account manager already covers before you hire.
This page is a plain reading of the rules. It isn't legal or tax advice.
How do you hire a project manager?
You hire a project manager by listing the work that needs running, sizing the job, and testing your top pick on a real project. Here are the six steps in order.
- List what needs running. Write down the client projects, the deadlines, the handoffs and the status updates that nobody owns today.
- Size the job. Decide if it's a full-time job, a part-time job, or part of a role you already have.
- Write the job around results. For example: every client project has an owner, a due date and a weekly update.
- Ask for real examples. Use the questions below.
- Test on a real project. Ask your top pick to plan one live project, and pay for the time.
- Agree on authority. Say in writing what the person can decide without you.
Four interview questions that fit this role:
- Tell me about a project that ran late. What did you do?
- How do you keep track of who's doing what?
- How do you tell a client about a delay?
- What do you need from an owner to do the job well?
What good can look like after the first 30 days, built from step 3:
- Every client project has one named owner
- Every project has a due date that the client has seen
- You get one update a week, and you didn't have to ask for it
- Late work is flagged before the due date
This page is about a project manager for a small agency or service business. Construction and IT project managers are different jobs. For where the role sits in an agency, see marketing agency team structure.
Where do you find a project manager for hire?
Common places to find a project manager for hire include the staff you already have, referrals, job boards and marketplaces for contract work.
- The staff you already have. Someone who already keeps work on track may want the role.
- Referrals. Ask other owners who ran their projects well.
- Job boards, for a project manager you'd bring on as an employee.
- Marketplaces for contract work, for a project manager by the project.
A project manager paid by the project isn't a contractor for that reason alone: the IRS weighs the whole relationship, and no set number of factors settles it. The Texas Workforce Commission has a test of its own. Not legal or tax advice. Ask your accountant.
A project manager runs other people's work, so those roles matter too. For a social media manager, see hire social media manager. For a video editor, see hire video editor.
If the work that needs running is production work, a team with its own manager is another route. A call with DeskTeam360 shows whether that fits.
The button opens DeskTeam360's Book a Call page.
What does a project manager cost as an employee?
In Texas, a full-time project management specialist hired as an employee at the middle (median) wage costs $8,854.64 a month. At the US median, the figure is $9,182.46 a month, with no state unemployment tax counted. Each figure is the wage plus employer taxes, before benefits, using BLS May 2025 wages and 2026 tax rates.
| Texas | US | |
|---|---|---|
| Middle (median) wage, an hour | $47.33 | $49.19 |
| Middle (median) wage, a year | $98,440 | $102,320 |
| Full time, a month: wages plus employer taxes, before benefits | $8,854.64 | $9,182.46 |
| Full time, a year: wages plus employer taxes, before benefits | $106,255.66 | $110,189.48 |
| Part time (20 hours a week), a month: wages plus employer taxes, before benefits | $4,439.48 | $4,592.76 |
| State unemployment tax counted | $243 a year, at the 2.70% entry rate for 2026 | None |
Four notes on those figures:
- The job title. BLS calls the job Project Management Specialists. That title covers project managers in every industry.
- What's added to the wage. Employer Social Security (6.2%), Medicare (1.45%) and $42 of federal unemployment tax go on top of the wage. Texas unemployment tax of $243 is in the Texas figures only. No state unemployment tax is in the US figures.
- The part-time row. This site assumed 20 hours a week, all 52 weeks, at the hourly median.
- What a median is. It's the middle wage. Half of project management specialists earn less, and half earn more. So no figure here is a quote. A real hire can cost less or more.
Ask your accountant how the taxes apply to you.
The four first-hire options by the month show the other kinds of first hire, and the price a flat-rate team publishes.
Do you need a project manager, or a team that comes with one?
You need a project manager of your own when it's your staff and your client relationships that need managing. Those need someone inside your business. When it's production tasks you send to an outside team, that team may come with a manager already.
Here's what one outside team's manager does. On a DeskTeam360 plan, a North American account manager reads each task you send, picks the specialist for it, sets the timeline and reviews the work before it comes back to you.
| What DeskTeam360's account manager does | What stays with you |
|---|---|
| Reads each task you send | Deciding which tasks to send, and in what order |
| Gives the task to the right specialist | Talking to your own clients |
| Sets a timeline for it | Reviewing the finished work and asking for changes |
| Checks the work before it comes back to you | Your plans. DeskTeam360 doesn't do strategy or coaching |
Compare the left-hand column with the list you wrote in step 1. If most of what needs running is production tasks, the two lists will overlap. If it's mostly people and clients, they won't.
More on first hires for an agency
Bring your step 1 list to a call, and see which parts DeskTeam360's account manager would cover.
The button opens DeskTeam360's Book a Call page.
Sources
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025 Occupation Profiles, Project Management Specialists (BLS code 13-1082), Texas and US
- IRS Topic 751, Social Security and Medicare
- IRS Topic 759, federal unemployment tax
- Texas Workforce Commission, unemployment tax rates
- This site's math: each total worked out two different ways
- IRS, independent contractor (self-employed) or employee
- Texas Workforce Commission, classifying employees and independent contractors
- DeskTeam360, home page and How It Works page (deskteam360.com)
All checked October 2, 2026.
This site isn't connected to the State of Texas or any government agency.
What changed
- October 2, 2026: First version of this page.