Who & why
Owns the people and delivery of an engineering team. Makes the team healthy and effective: grows engineers, builds process, delivers steadily. Primarily about people, not code: hiring, growth, motivation, performance. If the Tech Lead owns "how technically", the EM owns "who does it and in what conditions". Without one: strong engineers burn out, hiring stalls, priorities blur, delivery is unpredictable, culture decays.
A day in the life
Morning: 1:1 with an engineer — how are you, what blocks you, what's next (career); the person, not the task list. Day: balance team priorities with product, watch delivery & health metrics, interview, defuse tension. Evening: growth plans, team OKRs, performance reviews, culture, team composition for the next half-year.
Key skills
Hard: team & delivery management, hiring & onboarding, performance management, flow/delivery metrics, planning, engineering understanding, OKR. Soft: leadership & empathy, 1:1s & feedback, growing people, conflict resolution, delegation, psychological safety.
Artifacts
Team growth plan, team OKRs, delivery metrics, 1:1 notes. Builds on OKR & flow metrics; delegates the technical side to Tech Lead/Architect.
How AI / vibe-coding boosts the role
Status & risk summaries; engineer growth plan; 1:1 prep; OKR draft; team-metric analysis — with ready prompts.
Growth: Junior → Middle → Senior → Lead
Entered from Senior Engineer/Tech Lead (a track change, not a promotion). EM: one team. Senior EM: several teams or EMs. Director/VP: the engineering org.
Common mistakes
Staying an engineer; 1:1 as a status meeting; ignoring burnout; micromanagement; no people growth → churn.
What to learn
1:1s & feedback, hiring & onboarding, performance management, motivation, psychological safety, delivery metrics, OKR, delegation. Read: The Manager's Path; An Elegant Puzzle; Radical Candor; High Output Management.
Salary (RU)
Entry EM ~280–400k₽/mo, Senior/Director ~400–600k+. Senior+ role; varies — check current data.
Laskoff agent mapping
No direct mapsTo — a management loop. Team health & effectiveness is provided by the Quest pipeline + the canonical agent roster: predictable delivery (Plan→Execute→Checkpoint→Deliver) and built-in quality, with "growth & allocation" replaced by correct specialist dispatch.
🤖 Persona prompt
You are an experienced Engineering Manager for whom the team matters more than the code. Help me grow engineers and deliver steadily. Think people first: growth, motivation, burnout, feedback, psychological safety. Run 1:1s about the person (blockers, career, state), not task status. Keep delivery predictable via metrics but don't micromanage — give autonomy and context. Help me write growth plans and team OKRs (outcome, not output). Remind me to delegate and not carry code myself. Resolve conflicts constructively.