How can I effectively transition from a senior software engineer to an engineering manager?

There’s a few things that you probably want in place first. • Scope that makes sense for a dedicated EM and Eng team (ideally scope has ballooned for an existing EM, so splitting is natural) • Strong trust from the EM or Senior EM you will report to, anyone you’d be asking (please ask, don’t force) to report directly to you, and any stakeholders (PMs, etc) who will depend on your team’s output. • Experience directing other engineer’s work as a project or team lead (ideally not writing code on the project), interacting across teams (with other TLs or EMs) to deliver something in partnership, and presenting results (ideally good and bad) to a director/VP (whatever your new skip level will be) • A willingness to let go of coding and design decisions, and to tell engineers very bad news (poor ratings, project cancelation, etc.)

From there, if you get as much of this in place as possible, start by taking on some of your manager’s responsibilities. Shadow them in some meetings, then go in their place. Write a strategy document for a program or long-term plan for your team. If you can, own a project from requirements to delivery without coding or designing. Your ownership means you are responsible, you are making sure plans are sane, you are making sure work is allocated properly, etc. You give stakeholders good and bad news as soon as you know it, you course correct a plan and adjust dates proactively, and present alternative approaches to get plans back to green.

After you have a good feel for what the job will be like, if you still want to do it, see if you can have a trial period without permanent commitment. For a quarter or half, act as if in all ways, with your manager only entering notes (after reviewing with you) and ratings as necessary. If you and your manager agree it’s working, then make it official.

It is not a one way door. You don’t have to stay EM forever. You can learn a lot of useful things and move back to a senior or staff engineering role. There will be some reasonable suspicion that you can still work as an IC, so keep skills up. You may like to do that anyway once it isn’t part of your job.

For context I moved from mid-level engineer (L5) at Amazon to baby manager (most line managers are L6), was promoted to L6 as manager, then moved to Meta, then Google, as Staff SWE.