What does a senior manager engineering and operations do?
A senior manager of engineering and operations spearheads and oversees the daily operations of engineering projects, ensuring efficiency and smooth workflow. They have the authority to set goals, establish budgets and guidelines, liaise with external parties such as vendors and suppliers, manage and delegate responsibilities among teams, and develop strategies to optimize operations. Moreover, as a senior manager, it is essential to lead and serve as a role model to junior managers when reaching goals, all while implementing the company's policies and regulations.
Senior manager engineering and operations responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real senior manager engineering and operations resumes:
- Manage relationships with LEC and IXC carriers as well as IP, transport and equipment vendors.
- Manage scheduling and implementation of technology for applications migrations to cloud, ensuring consistency adherence to university practices.
- Support the Linux infrastructure for customer email of 15MM+ users.
- Maintain KPI reports used for proactive / reactive repair and optimization of deploy IP networks.
- Prepare gap analysis and business case recommendation for logistics systems.
- Execute design activities and establish standards/leading practices for design activities, leveraging knowledge of architecture design.
- Define infrastructure architecture and ensure application of architectural standards as well as alignment with enterprise architecture principles.
- Develop new processes and lead streamlining of existing processes to accelerate Linux Hyperscale product introductions from an engineering perspective.
- Work with application and other infrastructure teams to facilitate application on-boarding, testing, move-ups, and user security infrastructure integration.
- Conduct hands on training and develop written training materials for RF and voice picking devices.
- Implement industry standards for manage service provisioning and delivery across carrier-class fiber-optic network.
Senior manager engineering and operations skills and personality traits
We calculated that 10% of Senior Managers Engineering And Operations are proficient in Continuous Improvement, Project Management, and Direct Reports. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Communication skills, and Detail oriented.
We break down the percentage of Senior Managers Engineering And Operations that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Continuous Improvement, 10%
Developed an audit process to comply with Government regulations, and facilitated continuous improvement utilizing Lean / Six Sigma Methodologies.
- Project Management, 10%
Managed compressor station design oversight and project management.
- Direct Reports, 10%
Led 10 direct reports and 300+ indirect reports delivering 250,000+ line cards per week.
- Lean Six Sigma, 6%
Contributed executive-level project leadership, strategy and business expertise to cross-functional project teams utilizing Lean Six Sigma methodologies.
- Sigma, 6%
Designed and globally implemented Six Sigma processes for the state-of-the-art electronics manufacturing
- Program Management, 5%
Provide executive team with strategic and tactical leadership in the areas of budget planning, business transformation and program management.
Common skills that a senior manager engineering and operations uses to do their job include "continuous improvement," "project management," and "direct reports." You can find details on the most important senior manager engineering and operations responsibilities below.
Analytical skills. The most essential soft skill for a senior manager engineering and operations to carry out their responsibilities is analytical skills. This skill is important for the role because "architectural and engineering managers evaluate information to solve problems." Additionally, a senior manager engineering and operations resume shows how their duties depend on analytical skills: "enhanced organizational communications between engineering and operations by providing an infrastructure forecast of data center demand at a project level. "
Communication skills. Many senior manager engineering and operations duties rely on communication skills. "architectural and engineering managers must effectively convey information and expectations related to projects.," so a senior manager engineering and operations will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways senior manager engineering and operations responsibilities rely on communication skills: "maintain effective communication with all external and internal customers, including clients, property and project management, and engineering staff. "
Math skills. senior manager engineering and operations responsibilities often require "math skills." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "architectural and engineering managers use calculus and other mathematics to develop new products and processes." This resume example shows what senior managers engineering and operations do with math skills on a typical day: "performed quantitative analysis of key process indicators to identify opportunities for process improvement. "
Organizational skills. A commonly-found skill in senior manager engineering and operations job descriptions, "organizational skills" is essential to what senior managers engineering and operations do. Senior manager engineering and operations responsibilities rely on this skill because "architectural and engineering managers keep track of many workers, schedules, and budgets simultaneously." You can also see how senior manager engineering and operations duties rely on organizational skills in this resume example: "served as company-wide subject matter expert in release management, organizational efficiency, processes, tool development, and data analytics. "
The three companies that hire the most senior manager engineering and operationss are:
Compare different senior managers engineering and operations
Senior manager engineering and operations vs. Research and development manager
A research and development manager is responsible for supervising project development procedures to support business operations and identify business opportunities that would pave the way for more revenue resources and profits. Research and development managers monitor the production plans from the conceptualization to the final outputs, inspecting inconsistencies and flaws in every phase and revising strategies as needed to achieve the required specifications and requirements. They delegate tasks to the staff, oversee progress, and conduct research and development programs to maximize productivity and team efforts.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, senior manager engineering and operations responsibilities require skills like "continuous improvement," "oversight," "lean six sigma," and "program management." Meanwhile a typical research and development manager has skills in areas such as "customer service," "patients," "product development," and "c++." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
Research and development managers really shine in the professional industry with an average salary of $143,083. Comparatively, senior managers engineering and operations tend to make the most money in the technology industry with an average salary of $138,643.On average, research and development managers reach similar levels of education than senior managers engineering and operations. Research and development managers are 3.1% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and 5.3% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Senior manager engineering and operations vs. Operations program manager
The role of operations program managers is to help improve organizational efficiency, particularly in the areas of administrative, financial, and programmatic operations. Their key duties and responsibilities include overseeing the collection, analysis, and reporting of data, overseeing and leading teams to achieve business goals, and managing the development and execution of operational procedures. In addition, they are responsible for developing and monitoring dashboards to measure business health and assisting with planning, reporting, and budgeting.
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, senior manager engineering and operations responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "architecture," "sr," "linux," and "engineering organization." Meanwhile, an operations program manager has duties that require skills in areas such as "customer service," "infrastructure," "excellent interpersonal," and "ops." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
On average, operations program managers earn a lower salary than senior managers engineering and operations. Some industries support higher salaries in each profession. Interestingly enough, operations program managers earn the most pay in the technology industry with an average salary of $109,929. Whereas senior managers engineering and operations have higher pay in the technology industry, with an average salary of $138,643.operations program managers earn similar levels of education than senior managers engineering and operations in general. They're 2.1% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 5.3% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Senior manager engineering and operations vs. Research and development director
A research and development director spearheads and oversees the research and development initiatives and projects in a company. It is their duty to set goals and guidelines, establish timelines and budgets, direct and manage different departments, liaise with internal and external parties, gather and analyze data to implement solutions against problem areas, and utilize expertise in developing strategies to optimize company operations. Moreover, as a director, it is essential to lead and encourage the workforce to reach goals, all while promoting the company's policies and regulations, creating new ones as needed.
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from senior manager engineering and operations resumes include skills like "continuous improvement," "lean six sigma," "sigma," and "program management," whereas a research and development director is more likely to list skills in "product development," "business development," "due diligence," and "intellectual property. "
Research and development directors earn the best pay in the finance industry, where they command an average salary of $167,250. Senior managers engineering and operations earn the highest pay from the technology industry, with an average salary of $138,643.When it comes to education, research and development directors tend to earn similar degree levels compared to senior managers engineering and operations. In fact, they're 3.5% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 10.4% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Senior manager engineering and operations vs. Operations director
Operations directors oversee all company operations. They have the power to set the direction, change the course of the organization, and reform strategies to ensure efficiency in how the company operates. Operations directors manage business operations effectively by constantly analyzing company data and by anticipating any challenge that may come their way. As such, they make sound business decisions and recommendations that will help strengthen the organization. Operations directors oversee finances, quality control, and even human resources. They ensure that all aspects of the business are considered in making business operations decisions.
Types of senior manager engineering and operations
Updated January 8, 2025
