Hiring an emergency management director in Durham, NC
Employers in the Durham-Chapel Hill, NC area pay emergency management directors a median of $100,830, with the middle half of the market between $82,970 and $130,550. Durham residents working in management occupations report a median of $90,226, which is 11% below what the metro pays for this role.
What does an emergency management director earn here?
Place of work
What employers pay
| 25th percentile | $82,970 |
| Median | $100,830 |
| 75th percentile | $130,550 |
Half of emergency management directors in this area earn between $82,970 and $130,550. A band set below $82,970 competes for the bottom quarter of the market.
Place of residence
What Durham residents earn
$90,226
Median earnings of Durham residents working in management occupations, 20,498 people. Census ACS 5-year 2023, tables S2401 and B24011. Where people live, not where they work, so it is not the same measurement as the wages beside it.
The 11% figure is not a pay gap. ACS counts the civilian employed population 16 and over, part-time and part-year work included; OEWS counts wage-and-salary jobs only. The two populations differ, so read this number against other cities rather than as a shortfall: the same definitional difference applies to every city equally, which is what makes a city-to-city reading sound.
The role pays well above the local residential norm, which usually means you can hire from inside Durham rather than competing for commuters.
What does the role actually involve?
Core tasks
- Consult with officials of local and area governments, schools, hospitals, and other institutions to determine their needs and capabilities in the event of a natural disaster or other emergency.
- Develop and maintain liaisons with municipalities, county departments, and similar entities to facilitate plan development, response effort coordination, and exchanges of personnel and equipment.
- Coordinate disaster response or crisis management activities, such as ordering evacuations, opening public shelters, and implementing special needs plans and programs.
- Prepare emergency situation status reports that describe response and recovery efforts, needs, and preliminary damage assessments.
- Maintain and update all resource materials associated with emergency preparedness plans.
O*NET 29.1, task statements for SOC 11-9161.
Tools and technologies in demand
Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Office software, Microsoft PowerPoint, ESRI ArcGIS software, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Word, Alert Technologies OpsCenter.
O*NET 29.1, flagged in demand or hot for this occupation. Useful as a screen, not as a checklist.
Is the talent actually in Durham?
This is a job zone four: considerable preparation needed occupation. Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
That matters here, because 55.7% of Durham adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher. That is a deep local pool for a degree-requiring role. Census ACS 5-year 2023, table S1501.
The average Durham commute runs 22.7 minutes, which is roughly how far your catchment reaches before candidates start saying no. 20.6% already work from home, so a fully onsite requirement here is competing against that.
How often do these jobs turn over?
In Durham County, management of companies and enterprises employs 6,377 and turns over 3.7% a quarter, with 166 hires against 225 separations. Average earnings in that industry run $16,899 a month. Census LEHD Quarterly Workforce Indicators, 2024 Q1, NAICS 55.
That figure covers every occupation in the industry, not this role alone, so read it as the local churn rate rather than as a number about emergency management directors. It still tells you what you are hiring into: a low-churn market, where people do not move often and passive candidates are the whole game.
What does the search cost?
The fee is set by the seniority of the role, never by salary and never by location. Across all six tiers it runs $6,240 to $54,340 per search. A contingency firm hiring at this role's median would bill roughly $20,166 to $30,249 on the first year salary alone.
One owner runs the search from market map to signed offer. Searches typically fill in 23 to 35 days, which is a typical window rather than a promise, and the replacement guarantee runs 45 days at 50% off.
Price this search
Eight questions about the role. Your tier range appears on screen.
Hiring an emergency management director somewhere else?
Same role, different market. The wage band moves with the metro.
- New York, NY
- Los Angeles, CA
- Chicago, IL
- Houston, TX
- Phoenix, AZ
- Philadelphia, PA
- San Antonio, TX
- San Diego, CA
- Dallas, TX
- Fort Worth, TX
- Jacksonville, FL
- Austin, TX
Other management roles in Durham
- Administrative Services Managers
- Architectural and Engineering Managers
- Chief Executives
- Compensation and Benefits Managers
- Computer and Information Systems Managers
- Construction Managers
- Education Administrators, All Other
- Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary
- Education and Childcare Administrators, Preschool and Daycare
- Entertainment and Recreation Managers, Except Gambling
Related
- Hiring Emergency Management Directors: the role, the pay, the process
- Recruiting services in Durham
- Every North Carolina city we cover
Durham is the 4th largest of 6 North Carolina cities in this dataset.