Ryan Murphy’s Post

5 reasons why the Engineering Manager role is so demanding. Having been an Engineering Manager myself, I can confidently say that it’s one of the most challenging roles in tech. Here is why: 1️⃣ Engineering Managers are no longer individual contributors but need to be very hands-on in different ways. This apparent dichotomy is sometimes hard to crack and can lead to a sense of “identity crisis”, but mastering it is key to success. 2️⃣ Engineering Managers need to be very versatile. On any given day, they face a very diverse set of challenges that require a very wide range of skills. The ability to switch gears rapidly and tackle these diverse challenges is essential. 3️⃣ Engineering Managers are the bridge between teams and senior management. They need to communicate, mediate, and translate asks and expectations from two worlds that are sometimes very distant and often speak very different languages. 4️⃣ The Engineering Manager role is open to many interpretations and flavors. Expectations can differ from company to company and sometimes even from department to department within the same company. 5️⃣ Engineering Managers have the great responsibility of building and fostering a healthy and positive culture. Keeping people motivated and engaged while helping them grow personally and professionally is a truly demanding task. Do you agree? Did I miss anything?

Can you help a lead engineer out?   They are looking to become an Engineering Manager.   Their current company has engineering managers but they aren’t technical, so they would be the first.   They need to write.   • A job description • Progression Framework • Goals • What good and great looks like   I’m looking to connect them with Engineering Managers, Heads of Engineering, Directors of Engineering and CTOs.   Comment or DM me if you could help.   #softwareengineering #softwaredevelopment #careerprogression

Should an Engineering Manager be hands-on? I have come across many opinions on this topic. I recently hired an Engineering Manager who was required to be hands-on while managing a team of 10 ICs. To me, this is not feasible. IC engineers would likely suffer in this setup because they would not be given the focus they need to help them with their career development. The common theme I encounter is that engineering managers require a technical background, without a doubt. However, most engineering managers should NOT be hands-on as this can divert attention away from the primary goal of a manager: increasing the team's focus to produce better work. As a manager, you can measure your success by how well your team can operate when you are not there. 

The three focus areas of an Engineering Manager: 1. Ensuring delivery that's aligned with company goals, 2. Building and sustaining a high-performing engineering team, 3. Supporting the success and personal growth of the individuals on the team.

THE INFLUENTIAL ENGINEERING MANAGER is one who truly cares to understand his team in a way that no other person does and can get them to focus on productive goals with ease. 📍He/she understand each team member's inner personalities well and tailors his approach accordingly. 📍He/she mininimizes interference and let engineers do their work. 📍Given their deep & multidimensional insight, they know who should be assigned what. 📍They inspire everyone to give their best and are busy making sure everyone on the team is upbeat and up-to-date with everything they need. it's always a blessing when management & engineering blends well.

Engineering Managers, are you struggling to attract the best engineers within the industry? I have put a case study together for a project we have recently completed for one of our clients. We were up against it on this one, but yet still managed to attract and secure engineers within a 2 week timescale!!! If you're struggle, utilise a specialist. Give me a call to have a discussion on how potentially we can support you in the future.

In one of the threads, a question was raised that made me think about high-level engineering roles. The question was about the difference in engineering leadership and management. I think this deserves a repost. My response was as follows: "In a way, an engineering leader is a more difficult job than a people manager. You are still required to stay current on the technologies, without actually practicing them as much as you used to. As another comment stated, it's about building teams that build the tech. You would be the person who is juggling overarching technical concerns that more junior positions do not necessarily concern themselves with. Enterprise projects usually involve several technologies working together to form the complete picture, like pieces of a puzzle. An engineering leader is the person who's "putting the puzzle together", or at least instructing the organization as whole on how to proceed, and that requires engineering knowledge."

How to stand out as an Engineering Manager or Director: - Experience integrating best-in-class engineering teams and processes. - Demonstrate how you translate business/product requirements into actionable engineering tasks. - Ability to manage upwards, sideways, and downwards. - Building high-level teams and attracting world-class talent. - Demonstrating high levels of emotional intelligence. - Focusing on the why, not just the how and what. - Being able to capture the value of engineering across different stacks, etc. - Keeping senior sponsors engaged by highlighting the strategic engineering vision. - Demonstrating a strong legacy from previous roles. Clearly articulate your overall impact to the company and product, providing comprehensive detail wherever possible.

How To Decide if Engineering Management is for You Transitioning to engineering management involves shifting from task-focused work to people and results-focused roles. Skills that serve engineers, like autonomy and problem-solving, may not always benefit management.

A great engineering manager is not: - Cancelling 1-1s all the time. - Busy and nowhere to be found. - A bottleneck for team decisions. - Disconnected from the team's work. A great engineering manager is: - Need to talk? I'm available for you. - Need autonomy? I trust you with your decision. - Need guidance? Let me share my experience. - Need support? Tell me what to do. - Need security? Don't worry, I'll lead the way. I've seen hundreds of engineering managers. Most are always busy, skipping lunch, looking exhausted. And I've seen great engineering managers - always there for their people and their team. And they look energized. Great engineering managers are not busy. Why? Because they build their teams to be strong.