Business and finance
Project Management Specialist in the United States
350 postings read · sampled 2026-09-01 · source ats
What employers actually ask for
Credentials named in the 350 postings we read, ranked by how many mentioned each one.
- Secret Security ClearanceU.S. Government (DCSA)16%55 of 350 postingsU.S. Government (DCSA) →
- PMPProject Management Institute13%
- Bachelor's DegreeAccredited institution12%42 of 350 postingsAccredited institution →
- Master's DegreeAccredited institution5%19 of 350 postingsAccredited institution →
- TS/SCIU.S. Government (DCSA)5%18 of 350 postingsU.S. Government (DCSA) →
What it costs
Exam and application fees plus typical self-study hours. Almost nobody needs every credential on this list — start with the top line.
Not in the total: Secret Security Clearance — sponsored by an employer, not purchasable; Bachelor's Degree — cost varies by institution; Master's Degree — cost varies by institution; TS/SCI — sponsored by an employer, not purchasable.
Lower signal for this role
Credentials that barely appeared in this sample. That is not a claim they are worthless — plenty are valuable for a different job, a different city, or a promotion later. It is a claim that employers here mostly did not ask.
- Security+CompTIA0%
- Certified Six Sigma Green BeltAmerican Society for Quality1%
- CAPMProject Management Institute1%
- CFA Level ICFA Institute0%
- CIPP/USIAPP0%
- CISMISACA0%
- CPAAICPA / State Boards of Accountancy0%1 of 350 postings$1,500 exam · fee checked 2026-08~400 hrs prepAICPA / State Boards of Accountancy →
- OSCPOffSec0%
- OSHA 30-Hour ConstructionOSHA Training Institute0%
- PHRHRCI0%
- SHRM-CPSociety for Human Resource Management0%1 of 350 postings$510 exam · fee checked 2026-08~120 hrs prepSociety for Human Resource Management →
- Certified Six Sigma Black BeltAmerican Society for Quality0%
- CISSPISC21%
What the official taxonomy says
O*NET surveys people already doing this job. That describes who got hired over a long window, not what employers are asking for now — where it disagrees with the counts above, the counts are the more current answer.
- Bachelor’s degree64%
- Associate’s degree or other 2-year degree12%
- High school diploma or equivalent6%
Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed. Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
O*NET 13-1082.00 · pulled 2026-09-01 · percentages are of surveyed workers, each rounded separately, so they need not total 100
What it pays
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. A different survey from the postings above, so the two do not share a sample.
Every credential above costs $555 — about 1 day's pay at the median.
Who was hiring
Employers with at least one matching posting in this sample.
Anduril Industries · Stripe · Anthropic · Databricks · Rocket Lab · Scale AI · Datadog · Lucid Motors · Figma · Pinterest · Asana · Coinbase · MongoDB · Redwood Materials · Success Academy Charter Schools · GitLab · Klaviyo · Duolingo · Fivetran · Lyft · Oura · Ursa Major Technologies · Verkada · BAYADA Home Health Care · Betterment · Blink Health · Chime · Cloudflare · Dropbox · Flexport · Nuro · Reddit · Roblox · Skild AI · SoFi · Twilio · Airtable · Curaleaf · Elastic · Instacart · Luminis Health · Mercury · Modern Health · Oscar Health · Relativity Space · Rocket Money · Samsara · Spring Health · Affirm · Atlas Energy Solutions · C3EL · Cribl · Discord · Everlaw · Gusto · Hippo Insurance · Komodo Health · Monzo · Motive · Natera · Otterbein SeniorLife · Pearce Services · Upgrade · Wiz
Next
- Roast and Resolve — Now aim your résumé at this target. Free roast, paid rewrite.
- Synap — Two-minute daily lessons to drill the skills underneath the credential.