Project management in US faculty hiring: A decade-long content analysis of 1,200 job ads

This study analyzes 1,200 US faculty job advertisements from 2015 to 2024 using a systematic content analysis informed by a targeted literature review. Job postings were collected from major academic hiring platforms and coded according to established project management (PM) frameworks. Explicit PM references were defined as direct mentions of “project management” or equivalent formal terminology. Implicit references denoted descriptions of project-related tasks (e.g., leading initiatives, managing timelines, coordinating deliverables) without naming PM directly. Results show explicit mentions remained rare (under 10%), while implicit references increased from 15% to 25%. When mapped to PM competency domains, postings emphasized soft skills and leadership (~50%) over technical methods (~30%) and strategic alignment (~20%). Business and engineering disciplines were more likely than humanities to articulate PM requirements. The findings indicate an articulation gap that may undervalue structured PM as a scholarly competency, underscoring the need for more intentional PM language in faculty recruitment to reflect the project-intensive nature of academic work.