Engineering Manager Job Description Template

The engineering manager is responsible for a team’s people, delivery and technical health. The job is genuinely different from senior engineering rather than a promotion from it: the measurable outputs are the team’s, and the work is hiring, coaching, unblocking and creating the conditions in which engineers do their best work. Technical credibility remains necessary, but it is no longer the main contribution.

Typical Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead a team of engineers and own their growth and performance
• Run hiring for the team from sourcing through to offer
• Own delivery of the team’s commitments and their realism
• Hold regular one to one meetings and give direct, useful feedback
• Work with product on scope, sequencing and trade offs
• Maintain technical health including debt, reliability and on call load
• Remove blockers and shield the team from unnecessary disruption
• Support career development and performance management
• Foster a culture where problems are raised early
• Contribute to engineering wide practices and standards

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or equivalent practical experience

Required Skills and Experience

• 5+ years of software engineering plus experience leading a team
• Ability to hire well, which is most of the long term outcome
• Track record of delivering through a team rather than personally
• Skill at giving feedback that people can act on
• Enough technical depth to review decisions credibly
• Good partnership with product counterparts
• Judgment about sustainable pace and on call burden
• Clear communication upward and downward

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience managing through a period of rapid growth
• Background as a senior engineer on a comparable stack