Career ladder template

Engineering manager career ladder template

Four levels from Engineering Manager to VP of Engineering, across six management competencies.

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This ladder describes the management track in engineering for a company of roughly 20 to 200 people: from a first-time manager running one team to the person responsible for all of engineering. It sits next to the software engineer ladder — managing people is a different job, not the next step up from senior engineer. Its top level, VP of Engineering, is the head of the engineering function; engineers who grow without managing people follow the engineer ladder.

Each level grows mainly in scope: one team, several teams, a department, the whole function. The competency matrix shows how every expectation changes with that scope, and each level's section lists everything expected at that level.

Use it to set expectations for new managers, to give managers structured feedback in check-ins, and to decide when someone is ready for a larger scope. Adapt the titles and the wording to your company before you publish it.

The levels at a glance

Engineering Manager
Leads one team of engineers and is responsible for its people, delivery and health.
Scope
One team of roughly four to eight engineers.
Senior Engineering Manager
Leads several teams or one large team, often through tech leads or newer managers.
Scope
Two or three teams, or 10 to 25 engineers, sometimes including first-time managers.
Director of Engineering
Runs an engineering department and turns company goals into its plans, structure and hiring.
Scope
A product area or department of several teams and their managers.
VP of Engineering
Leads all of engineering and answers to the executive team for its results.
Scope
The whole engineering organisation, its budget and its role in company strategy.

Competency matrix

Each row is a competency and each column a level. Read a row from left to right to see how the expectation grows.

What each competency means

People development: Helping each person grow, giving honest feedback and handling performance fairly.
Delivery and execution: Making sure the team ships what matters, predictably and at a sustainable pace.
Team health and hiring: Building teams that people want to join and want to stay in.
Technical leadership: Keeping enough technical judgement to make good decisions without becoming the bottleneck.
Strategy and planning: Turning goals into plans, and plans into the right work.
Cross-functional partnership: Working with product, design, sales, support and leadership as one team.

Engineering Manager: expectations by competency and level
Competency	Engineering Manager	Senior Engineering Manager	Director of Engineering	VP of Engineering
People development	Holds regular 1:1s with every report, gives specific feedback within days rather than months, and agrees a development goal with each person every quarter.	Coaches new managers and tech leads, calibrates assessments across teams so that the same work earns the same rating, and deals with performance problems early.	Builds the department's bench of managers, makes sure every engineer has a clear path to the next level, and owns promotion decisions for the department.	Defines how engineering grows people — career ladders, reviews and promotions — and develops the directors and managers who run that system.
Delivery and execution	Runs the team's planning and delivery rhythm, keeps commitments realistic, raises risks before deadlines slip, and shields the team from constant changes in priorities.	Coordinates delivery across teams, removes blockers between them, and keeps several parallel projects on track without micromanaging.	Sets the delivery approach for the department, balances roadmap work against technical debt and reliability, and holds managers accountable for outcomes.	Answers for engineering's output against company goals, reports progress and trade-offs to leadership, and fixes the systemic causes of slow delivery.
Team health and hiring	Notices burnout, conflict and disengagement early and acts on them, runs retrospectives that lead to changes, and runs structured interviews against agreed criteria for the team's open roles.	Shapes how several teams are structured and staffed, keeps the hiring bar consistent across interviewers, and makes sure new hires become productive in their first months.	Plans headcount for the department, draws team boundaries around clear ownership, and improves retention using what exits and engagement surveys reveal.	Owns the engineering hiring strategy, the organisation design and the culture: what is rewarded, what is tolerated and what is not.
Technical leadership	Understands the team's systems well enough to judge trade-offs, takes part in design reviews, and keeps technical debt visible and planned.	Works with tech leads and staff engineers on architecture across teams, and makes sure significant technical decisions are written down and reviewed.	Partners with staff and principal engineers on the department's technical direction, and funds platform and reliability work that no single team would prioritise.	Makes sure engineering has a credible technical strategy and senior technical people to carry it out, and makes the final call on major technology investments.
Strategy and planning	Translates product goals into a quarterly team plan, explains the reasons behind priorities, and says no to work that does not fit.	Builds plans that span several teams, sequences the dependencies between them, and adjusts the plan when goals change.	Writes the department's yearly plan and budget, decides where people are invested, and connects engineering work to measurable business outcomes.	Shapes company strategy as part of the leadership team, sets engineering's yearly goals and budget, and decides what engineering will not do.
Cross-functional partnership	Works as an equal partner with the team's product manager and designer, sets clear expectations with stakeholders, and gives honest status updates.	Manages the expectations of several product partners, resolves conflicting requests between teams, and escalates with options rather than only problems.	Is the main engineering partner for one or more functional leaders, and negotiates roadmap, scope and staffing at department level.	Represents engineering in the executive team and to the board, builds trust with peers in every function, and explains engineering's work in business terms.

Scroll the table sideways to see every level.

Download as CSV Opens in Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers.

Engineering Manager: what is expected

Leads one team of engineers and is responsible for its people, delivery and health. One team of roughly four to eight engineers.

People development: Holds regular 1:1s with every report, gives specific feedback within days rather than months, and agrees a development goal with each person every quarter.
Delivery and execution: Runs the team's planning and delivery rhythm, keeps commitments realistic, raises risks before deadlines slip, and shields the team from constant changes in priorities.
Team health and hiring: Notices burnout, conflict and disengagement early and acts on them, runs retrospectives that lead to changes, and runs structured interviews against agreed criteria for the team's open roles.
Technical leadership: Understands the team's systems well enough to judge trade-offs, takes part in design reviews, and keeps technical debt visible and planned.
Strategy and planning: Translates product goals into a quarterly team plan, explains the reasons behind priorities, and says no to work that does not fit.
Cross-functional partnership: Works as an equal partner with the team's product manager and designer, sets clear expectations with stakeholders, and gives honest status updates.

Senior Engineering Manager: what is expected

Leads several teams or one large team, often through tech leads or newer managers. Two or three teams, or 10 to 25 engineers, sometimes including first-time managers.

People development: Coaches new managers and tech leads, calibrates assessments across teams so that the same work earns the same rating, and deals with performance problems early.
Delivery and execution: Coordinates delivery across teams, removes blockers between them, and keeps several parallel projects on track without micromanaging.
Team health and hiring: Shapes how several teams are structured and staffed, keeps the hiring bar consistent across interviewers, and makes sure new hires become productive in their first months.
Technical leadership: Works with tech leads and staff engineers on architecture across teams, and makes sure significant technical decisions are written down and reviewed.
Strategy and planning: Builds plans that span several teams, sequences the dependencies between them, and adjusts the plan when goals change.
Cross-functional partnership: Manages the expectations of several product partners, resolves conflicting requests between teams, and escalates with options rather than only problems.

Director of Engineering: what is expected

Runs an engineering department and turns company goals into its plans, structure and hiring. A product area or department of several teams and their managers.

People development: Builds the department's bench of managers, makes sure every engineer has a clear path to the next level, and owns promotion decisions for the department.
Delivery and execution: Sets the delivery approach for the department, balances roadmap work against technical debt and reliability, and holds managers accountable for outcomes.
Team health and hiring: Plans headcount for the department, draws team boundaries around clear ownership, and improves retention using what exits and engagement surveys reveal.
Technical leadership: Partners with staff and principal engineers on the department's technical direction, and funds platform and reliability work that no single team would prioritise.
Strategy and planning: Writes the department's yearly plan and budget, decides where people are invested, and connects engineering work to measurable business outcomes.
Cross-functional partnership: Is the main engineering partner for one or more functional leaders, and negotiates roadmap, scope and staffing at department level.

VP of Engineering: what is expected

Leads all of engineering and answers to the executive team for its results. The whole engineering organisation, its budget and its role in company strategy.

People development: Defines how engineering grows people — career ladders, reviews and promotions — and develops the directors and managers who run that system.
Delivery and execution: Answers for engineering's output against company goals, reports progress and trade-offs to leadership, and fixes the systemic causes of slow delivery.
Team health and hiring: Owns the engineering hiring strategy, the organisation design and the culture: what is rewarded, what is tolerated and what is not.
Technical leadership: Makes sure engineering has a credible technical strategy and senior technical people to carry it out, and makes the final call on major technology investments.
Strategy and planning: Shapes company strategy as part of the leadership team, sets engineering's yearly goals and budget, and decides what engineering will not do.
Cross-functional partnership: Represents engineering in the executive team and to the board, builds trust with peers in every function, and explains engineering's work in business terms.

How to adapt this ladder

Keep only the levels you need
A company with 15 engineers usually needs one or two of these levels, not four. Add the next level when the job really exists — for example, when a manager starts leading other managers. In many companies of this size the top of this ladder is the CTO, who combines the VP level with owning technical strategy; if you have both, the VP runs the organisation and the CTO the technology.
Pair it with your engineer ladder
Map each manager level to the engineer level with comparable pay and scope, so that moving between the tracks is a sideways step. Senior Engineer next to Engineering Manager is a common anchor.
Decide how technical your managers should be
Some companies expect managers to review code; others want them focused on people and delivery. Write your answer into the Technical leadership row so the expectation is explicit rather than assumed.
Collect upward feedback against the ladder
Ask a manager's reports and peers for feedback on the same competencies. It tells you more about people development and team health than the manager's own self-assessment does.

FAQ

Questions about this ladder

What is the difference between an engineering manager and a tech lead?

An engineering manager is responsible for people — growth, feedback, hiring, team health — and for delivery. A tech lead is an individual contributor responsible for the team's technical direction. In small teams one person may do both, but they are two jobs with two different ladders.

When does a company need its first engineering manager?

Usually when a team grows beyond six to eight engineers, or when the founder or CTO no longer has time for regular 1:1s with everyone. That is when people start missing feedback and career conversations.

Is becoming a manager a promotion?

It should not be. Moving from engineer to manager is a change of track into a different job. If management is the only way to a raise or a bigger title, you lose good engineers and gain reluctant managers — keep a parallel individual-contributor ladder.

How do we assess an engineering manager's performance?

Look at the team's results and the manager's behaviour: how the team delivers, how people grow and whether they stay, and what reports and peers say. Run the same structured check-ins you use for engineers, with this ladder as the reference and feedback from the team included.

How many levels does an engineering management ladder need?

For a company of 20 to 200 people, three or four are enough: a manager of one team, a manager of several teams, and one or two leadership levels above. Add more only when there is a real role to fill at each step.

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Engineering manager career ladder template

The levels at a glance