Account Executive vs Business Development Manager

On pay, business development managers come out ahead by about $5k a year at the midpoint of posted bands: $62k–$165k against $64k–$154k for account executives. These are advertised figures from postings that state a salary, not estimates. By seniority and country: account executive salary and business development manager salary.

On skills, they are close to the same job under two titles. Postings ask for largely the same things, and the difference is mostly emphasis. The skills both sets of postings want most are Business Development, Account Management, Sales, CRM, B2B.

Yes, and the numbers say how far along you already are: a typical account executive profile covers 71% of what business development manager postings ask for. Our estimate for the move is 6–12 mo. The route page lists the exact skills that make up the rest.

Going the other way, a typical business development manager profile covers 73% of what account executive postings ask for. Our estimate for the move is 6–12 mo. The route page has the gap itemized.

Right now our board has 3,779 account executive openings and 560 business development manager openings, each linking to the original posting. The board refreshes every night, so the counts move with the market. Hiring the most account executives at the moment: Toast (56), Databricks (51), Stripe (42). For business development managers: Ebury (12), OpenAI (8), Shieldai (8).