Engineering Manager

The Engineering Manager (EM), or software engineering team manager, supports people and creates the conditions for collective delivery. They help engineers develop, clarify priorities and coordinate work with product and technical colleagues. Their results are assessed at team level, beyond their own code output.

Their remit combines professional development, work organisation and attention to software quality. They contribute to recruitment, onboarding and feedback on work. Cooperation with product helps align the needs to be met with available capacity. Technical decisions require a perspective suited to the systems the team is responsible for.

The role may cover a customer-facing product or a platform used by other developers. In the latter case, the reliability and operation of internal services may be particularly important.

Team manager, technical lead and product manager: who does what?

• The Engineering Manager supports people and takes responsibility for collective commitments within the limits of their remit.
• How technical decisions are shared with the Tech Lead depends on the organisation; titles alone do not determine each person's responsibilities.
• The Engineering Manager works with the product manager to prepare priorities, discuss trade-offs and revise commitments.

Reporting lines and decision-making authority vary by organisation. Some remits cover one team, while others cover several teams with intermediate managers. This software management role is distinct from industrial engineering and the CTO's overall leadership role.

The challenge is to align employees' development with the commitments made by the team. Delivery can draw on the right skills while exposing conflicting priorities or difficulties in cooperation. The role therefore calls on technical understanding as much as the ability to help a group work together.

The first area to consider is autonomy. A manager who takes on every difficulty risks leaving engineers little room to decide and learn. Conversely, delegating without making expectations explicit can blur responsibilities. Clear responsibilities give the team a framework for making decisions and seeking support.

The quality of communication also matters. Giving feedback and expressing disagreements are part of the role. These practices provide a framework for discussing mistakes and difficulties; they do not, on their own, guarantee better performance. The team needs to be able to raise problems early enough for a decision to be made.

Delivery also involves trade-offs between priorities, expected quality and available capacity. The manager helps make these choices explicit and adapt the team's commitments.

Fictional example: a team must deliver a feature when an incident exposes a recurring weakness. The manager brings together the technical information and the consequences for the product, then works with the people concerned to prepare a decision on priorities. The aim is to make the trade-off understandable and revise commitments, rather than leaving each developer to resolve the contradiction alone.

• Support the professional development of the team's engineers.
• Give feedback on work and clarify individual expectations.
• Contribute to recruitment based on the skills the team needs.
• Organise onboarding for new recruits.
• Prepare work priorities with product and technical colleagues.
• Help the team make delivery commitments that match its capacity.
• Make explicit the trade-offs and obstacles that require a shared decision.
• Incorporate software quality and system operation requirements into priorities.

Moving from software engineering into management combines technical learning with learning to take on responsibility for managing people. Experience of technical decisions, collective work and discussions with product helps managers understand the situations the team encounters. The technical depth required depends on the systems and the responsibilities of the role.

The transition gradually shifts attention from one's own output towards the work and development of others. Giving a colleague technical help and supporting their professional development draw on different skills. Giving difficult feedback, supporting learning and contributing to onboarding for new recruits are all situations in which this practice develops.

Coaching, mentoring and continuing training can support learning the role. Support when taking up the position provides an opportunity to revisit difficult situations, discuss decisions and identify areas to work on. Gradually assigned responsibilities and people to turn to for support connect this learning to the team's actual work.

GetPro's generic method uses a criteria grid, open questions supported by examples and reference checks. For an Engineering Manager, the suggestions below can help adapt the assessment to the responsibilities of the role and share observations between HR, technical and product colleagues.

1. Define the criteria for the role

The grid distinguishes criteria that can be verified from career history from those to explore in an interview, and assigns an assessment method to each. Limit it to around ten criteria at most.

For this role, write down the expected responsibilities before the interviews: supporting people, prioritisation, collective delivery and technical judgement. Specify the team's context and the decisions that will remain shared.

For each criterion, define what you expect to observe. For prioritisation, for example, look for an explanation of the options rejected and their consequences. For professional development, look for an account of support provided over time.

Entrust the assessment of technical perspective to someone capable of discussing the systems concerned. If this expertise is not available internally, involve a qualified professional in the field for this part of the assessment.

2. Analyse past achievements

The interview explores three or four key criteria in depth through open questions and concrete examples.

For this role, ask the candidate to describe a difficult delivery and a situation involving an employee's development. Ask them to clarify the context, their personal responsibility, the decisions made and what changed.

Distinguish the candidate's actions from the team's results. Ask what they delegated, what they revised and what evidence they use to assess the result.

Welcome an account that acknowledges limitations and other people's contributions. Probe answers that attribute every success to the manager or every difficulty to employees.

3. Use a case close to the scope of the role

Hypothetical exercise: a software team is preparing a feature, a dependency on another team is delayed and two engineers challenge the chosen priority. Ask the candidate to prepare their response. Adapt the constraints to the actual scope, whether product or platform, and to how decisions are shared with the technical lead and product manager.

Let them begin with their questions. Observe the information they seek, the people they involve and how they distinguish urgency, quality and available capacity.

Then ask them to explain their trade-off to the product manager, followed by the team. Change one constraint to see how they revise their proposal. Assess the coherence of their reasoning, without expecting a single solution.

4. Explore management and communication in greater depth

Revisit an example of difficult feedback. Ask how the candidate set out the facts, listened to the person and defined the next steps following the discussion.

Also explore an example of delegation: which decisions did they leave to the employee, and what support did they maintain? Ask them to explain how they recognised a difficulty or adjusted their own behaviour.

Look for clear communication about expectations and attention to the responses received. Probe general judgements about people, a lack of self-questioning or systematically taking back delegated decisions.

5. Cross-check observations and references

Bring the assessors together around the initial criteria. Separate observed facts, interpretations and points that remain uncertain. An impression of confidence is not enough to establish management capability.

The documented reference-checking process for managers brings together the perspectives of a former manager, a peer and someone they managed. Each skill explored is placed in the context of the working relationship, then assessed and illustrated with a concrete example. Strengths and areas requiring attention are brought together in a summary.

With the candidate's consent, prepare questions for this role about the responsibilities they actually held and the situations discussed. Ask for concrete examples of cooperation and support.

Finish with the conditions needed for success when taking up the role. Distinguish skills already demonstrated from those that will require support, then check that the organisation can provide that support.