Engineering managers play a crucial role in tech teams, blending technical expertise with people management to foster team growth and productivity. They focus on hiring engineers, enhancing their skills, and may also engage in coding, architecture, strategy, and delivery. For example, engineering managers adopt various styles, such as the Tech Lead Manager, who prioritizes coding, and the People Manager, who emphasizes team management. Key points include: - Engineering management is increasingly vital in tech teams. - Engineering managers typically have a technical background. - Responsibilities include hiring, mentoring, coding, and strategy. - Four distinct styles exist based on focus areas: - Tech Lead Manager: prioritizes coding and technical leadership. - Architectural Lead Manager: concentrates on design and technical direction. - People Manager: focuses on team growth and management. - Team Lead Manager: balances team health and productivity with strategic goals.
This article matters for Engineering Leaders as it provides a comprehensive overview of the Engineering Manager role, highlighting the balance between technical responsibilities and people management. An actionable takeaway is to identify and cultivate one of the four distinct management styles—Tech Lead, Architectural Lead, People Manager, or Team Lead—to improve team dynamics and project outcomes.
Introducing Engineering Managers
Engineering management is a discipline and role that has been growing in maturity over recent years, now almost all but the smallest tech teams will have an Engineering Manager there to manage and grow engineers.
A typical Engineering Manager will have a technical background and be actively looking to move into people management, they’ll mostly concern themselves with hiring and growing engineers but may, or may not also be writing code, introducing ways of working, conducting code reviews, leading on architecture, ensuring delivery, setting the strategy and pretty much everything in between.
Styles of Engineering Manager
To help with job hunting and meeting role expectations I think about the variety of Engineering Management elements as being grouped into four distinct styles based on time and energy spent on each of the primary responsibilities – Code (writing, and reviewing), Architecture (designing and setting technical direction), People (hiring, managing, growing), Team health (ways of working, productivity, happiness), and Product strategy (what to build and when).
The Tech Lead Manager
The Architectural Lead Manager
The People Manager
The Team Lead Manager
