[scottcodie]

What is the role of an engineering manager exactly? I've been thinking about this question for awhile and I get wildly different answers depending on who I ask. It seems to me that an engineering manager contributes to the intellectual product, attempts to solve communication issues between teams, and fills in gaps for what the team needs. It is amazing to me that there is so much variance for something that should be a well defined role.

[icedchai]

Most are "facilitators", working out communication and coordination issues. Very rarely do they contribute to the actual product. Often they simply don't have time, because there are too many meetings.

Earlier in my career, the engineering managers were more hands on, more of a tech lead + people manager hybrid. They would work on the spec, understand the product, and do some coding that was out of the critical path. You still find those types in some companies, but it's become rarer (at least for me.)

[troupe]

The best engineering managers I've seen help remove unhelpful friction for the team. This includes helping the team make decisions quickly, facilitating interactions with other teams, shielding them from unnecessary meetings, etc.

[tick_tock_tick]

It's because most companies agree an EM and PM are different roles but since most teams are setup up per project with an EM&PM per team they tend to have huge overlap.

[astrange]

Remove friction and annoyance from the team, help with scheduling, ensure you're pointed at useful work rather than what you personally want to do, hire new people, write performance reviews, politely stack rank you.

Especially good lower level managers also hang onto some of their tasks from when they were an IC.