What Is an Engineering Manager? How to Become One, Salary, Skills.

Engineering managers supervise engineering activities and coordinate key engineering projects. Here’s what to know about an engineering manager’s needed skills, salary and how to become one.

What Is an Engineering Manager?

Engineering managers plan, organize and oversee engineering projects, usually for product creation. They frequently execute strategies to manage overall project requirements, budgets and schedules.

What Do Engineering Managers Do?

Engineering managers guide engineering projects, delegate tasks to engineers and gauge progress to ensure engineering goals are being met.

Engineering Manager Responsibilities

• Initiate and lead engineering projects to create new products or systems.
• Assemble, train and delegate tasks to engineering teams.
• Track project progress and create related reports.
• Propose and implement project schedules, budgets and resources.
• Communicate project needs and metrics to other managers and teams.

Engineering Managers Within a Company

Engineering managers are part of an engineering or IT team and tend to report to a director of engineering within a company.

Importance of Engineering Managers

Engineering managers ensure engineer tasks and project milestones are being met seamlessly and as scheduled. They act as an important mentor for junior engineers and lead for engineering guidelines.

What Skills Are Needed to Be an Engineering Manager?

Qualifications to Be an Engineering Manager

• Five or more years of experience in engineering, software development, product development or related fields.
• Ability to manage, coordinate and set clear project guidelines for engineering teams.
• Ability to propose project strategies and apply changes where necessary.
• Proficiency in company-specific engineering discipline (for example, electrical engineering, software engineering, etc.).

Engineering Manager Prerequisites

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering or related field.

Engineering Manager Hard Skills

• Expertise in technical knowledge and company-specific applications. 
• Experience in project management and agile methodology software.
• Knowledge of computer programming languages (C, Java, Python, SQL).
• Familiarity with budget management software.

Engineering Manager Soft Skills

• Adaptability.
• Critical thinking. 
• Leadership and management.
• Verbal and written communication skills.

Tools and Programs Engineering Managers Use

• ClickUp
• Confluence 
• Jira 
• Java
• Microsoft 365 
• Monday.com 
• Python 
• SQL

How to Become an Engineering Manager

Engineering Manager Education and Experience

Engineering managers often hold a bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering or related fields. 

Engineering managers will also be expected to obtain five or more years of experience in engineering, development or related roles. Knowledge of project management, leadership and company-specific technical applications are recommended.

Engineering Manager Certificates and Courses

• Agile Crash Course: Agile Project Management; Agile Delivery
• Agile Fundamentals: Including Scrum and Kanban
• Product Development & Systems Engineering
• Understanding Jira for users, managers and admins

Engineering Manager Career Path

After experience in engineering, software development or related management roles, professionals can move into an engineering manager role. From here, professionals may progress into roles like director or engineering and eventually vice president of engineering.

Engineering Manager Salary and Job Outlook

Engineering manager jobs are expected to grow 2 percent by 2031, while software engineering managers will see jobs grow 21 percent by 2028.

The full compensation package for an engineering manager depends on a variety of factors, including but not limited to the candidate’s experience and geographic location. See below for detailed information on the average engineering manager salary.