What is really the role of an engineering manager?

Question

I work mostly with other senior engineers and the tech lead in my team. I discuss any technical stuff, how to implement my projects, what to do next, etc. with them. With my manager, I meet once every two weeks and update what I am doing.

I actually now wonder what's really the role of an engineering manager as tech leads seem to do most of the work in managing the team. Is it to help with people conflicts, hiring, and performance reviews? That doesn't seem like a lot of work.

Rahul Pandey · Accepted Answer

The work of the Eng Manager might be invisible, but still essential to have the team function. Or you could just have a bad manager 😅  Let's start by talking about how a manager is evaluated. It's very simple: The value of any manager is the combination of the output of her team and the output of her surrounding teams.  This is from High Output Management by Andy Grove, the de facto management book of Silicon Valley.  From this, you can tell that the manager's job is to do anything that increases the output of their 'sphere of influence.' The manifestation of this will differ based on the needs of the team, but the common behaviors will include what you already called out:  Improving the performance of existing team members (or firing them) Bringing in talented new team members Identifying and reducing inefficiencies that slow down the team Running performance reviews Motivating the team to achieve more  A few ideas for you:  Ask other people on the team about their interaction with the manager, and what value they've seen. Look at how your manager spends their time Ask your manager what is top of mind for them, and ask How can I help? This will reveal their biggest problems, or perhaps will reveal that they truly are not doing much.  We talk about the role of EMs here: What Does An Engineering Manager Actually Do?

What is really the role of an engineering manager?

Discussion