What is a Regional Area Manager?

A regional area manager is a person who manages a geographical region for some type of organization. Often, this organization is a business or government agency with more than one location to service customers or conduct operations. A regional area manager may be responsible for a sales operation, general management, safety management, or possibly dozens of other specialties.

No matter what a regional area manager is tasked to do, the individual will likely be responsible for setting and meeting targets specific to his or her field within the assigned region. In sales, for example, this could relate to selling a certain number of product units or meeting a certain profit margin. In the safety arena, goals are most likely to be measured in the form of lost-time from accidents, or perhaps performance during a government safety inspection.

Given the multiple locations and the fact the ultimate responsibility for each location lies with the regional area manger, this individual will likely need to do some amount of traveling. Most regional area managers will have a home base, likely at the company's national or regional headquarters, and then travel to other locations from there. The amount of traveling will likely depend on issues at each location for which the manager is responsible. If operations run smoothly in the manager's area, less travel may be required. Some amount of travel will still likely be needed on a routine basis, however.

Regional managers often attain this rank after achieving a certain level of education, experience, and job performance. Therefore, it is generally not an entry-level job. Many work their way up from being managers at a single location. Others may be hired as regional managers based on their work or management experience with other companies, and meeting all the educational requirements outlined in the job description.

A Bachelor’s Degree is often required in order to be considered for a regional area manager’s position. Some may require more advanced degrees or a specific number of years on the job. In a few cases, it may be possible to work up to a regional management position without a four year college degree, based purely on job performance. Still, a college degree generally gives candidates an edge over those without one.

A regional area manager’s salary may be exclusively base pay, but could also include bonuses or commissions, which are often based on performance. This is especially common if the manager is in the sales field, but other fields could also be part of a bonus system. Regional managers also tend to have higher earnings than single location managers, but it could also be possible that a single location manager could earn more than some regional managers, especially if serving in a position for a long period of time.