Who wants to be an engineering manager anyway?

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

For decades, the natural progression for engineers was simple: learn to code, build expertise, lead, manage.

But, in today’s shifting tech landscape, that path is no longer guaranteed, or even desirable.

Management still offers the chance to help teams grow, succeed, and find satisfaction in their work, but with a wider array of constraints than before.

“Over time, as you look back at the people you mentored and see how they’ve gone on to do great things, it can be one of the most fulfilling things in your career,” James Stanier, CTO for Veterinary at Nordhealth, writes.

Today, the role of management looks very different. Economic uncertainty, tighter headcount scrutiny, and the rise of AI tools are reshaping what it means to lead software teams.

Stanier recognizes that this means a very different challenge for aspiring managers. Those excited by being “scrappy, resourceful, and able to do more with less – while helping teams level up their use of AI – may find now is the right time to make the switch,” he writes.

Amid these changes, one question looms large – are fewer engineers up for that challenge?

Shift in environment 

In a blog post, Will Larson, CTO at Imprint, explains that the leadership model of the 2010s was defined by hypergrowth, where managers had to attract, retain, and motivate engineers. With budgets often effectively uncapped, hiring strong engineers was widely seen as the main constraint on growth.

During this era of abundant funding, managers could focus on building large teams, hiring aggressively, and scaling projects. Today, post-pandemic layoffs have changed managers’ roles. Companies now expect every new hire to be justified.

In April 2025, a leaked internal memo, later posted on X by Shopify chief executive Tobi Lütke, stated that “before asking for more headcount and resources, teams must demonstrate why that cannot get what they want done without using AI.”

Duolingo’s chief executive, Luis von Ahn, followed suit. In an internal email  – later shared on LinkedIn – he said the company would “gradually stop using contractors for work that AI can handle” and would hire only for roles “that cannot be automated.”

If teams do shrink as expected, the risk of expanded scope and responsibilities, as the demands of leadership collide with hands-on technical work, rises significantly for managers.

“These super hybrid roles, they’ve always existed to a degree, but what’s shifted is just how widespread they’ve become again over the last couple of years. They’ve become this way in combination with teams being smaller,” leadership coach Lena Reinhard explained. 

According to LeadDev’s 2025 Engineering Leadership Report, 65% of engineering leaders reported expanded responsibilities, with 40% managing more direct reports. Only 3% saw a decrease in scope.

This contrasts with the 2010s, when managers were often encouraged to move away from hands-on coding entirely as they focused on leadership responsibilities.

“Doing more with less” became the new, often unsustainable, normal, Dennis Henry, a software architect at Okta, wrote in his blog post.

“A lot of managers I talk to feel insanely stressed out and beyond what they’re able to keep up with. The problem is the variety and sets of responsibilities that are difficult to manage,” Reinhard said.

Desire of engineers

Expanded responsibilities are just part of the picture – another key factor is how these shifts affect engineers’ career ambitions. As Reinhard puts it, management positions have increasingly become “dead ends.”

“It’s hard to find jobs at the moment, and the market, especially for management roles, is insane,” she said.

Many tech companies are actively flattening their org charts, and hollowing out the ranks of middle managers, leaving fewer management opportunities than before.

In today’s market, career progression has largely stalled. The clear and rapid advancement paths that existed when companies were growing fast have diminished significantly as many organizations slow hiring and tighten budgets. 

According to Hiring Lab’s research, tech job postings on Indeed, after surging post-pandemic, have remained sluggish since mid-2023, and by early July 2025, they were 36% lower than their early-2020 levels. At the same time, management salaries have either stagnated or declined over that period.

This stagnation isn’t just anecdotal. Broader UK labour‑market data indicate that overall job postings and hiring rates remain subdued compared with earlier in the decade, making internal promotions and external moves less frequent and less predictable than before, according to research from People Management. 

Stanier explained that, alongside the hiring deep freeze, uncertainty surrounds stepping into management roles. “After the great flattening that followed the end of the zero interest rate policy era, engineers watched layers of management get removed overnight,” he said.

Reinhard echoed Stainer’s sentiment. She explained, “Companies are more focused on the next reduction in staff. There’s so much uncertainty – why would [engineers] choose [management] as a career path?”

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For many engineers, the clearest path to advancement now seems uncertain, stressful, and less appealing than before.