A Software Engineering Manager is an administrative position, which reports to higher management, tasked with supervising and directing the work of other software engineers within projects involving the design and development of software, programs, and applications.
This Manager must establish and stick to a timeline and a budget, solve any issues that come up, create an efficient but healthy work environment, develop plans for the project, participate in the programming of the software, work with those in higher positions and explain work to them and potential customers, and mentoring new employees.
Typically, a Software Engineering Manager must have at least a Bachelor's degree in a subject such as Computer Science or Programming, along with several years of experience in a closely related industry or position. As an individual contributor, he must be proficient in programming languages and programs. Some experience in a managerial position might be requested as well.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a software engineering manager. For example, did you know that they make an average of $65.72 an hour? That's $136,693 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 21% and produce 284,100 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many software engineering managers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed creativity, interpersonal skills and problem-solving skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a software engineering manager, we found that a lot of resumes listed 19.0% of software engineering managers included software development, while 6.1% of resumes included java, and 5.5% of resumes included python. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the software engineering manager job title. But what industry to start with? Most software engineering managers actually find jobs in the technology and manufacturing industries.
If you're interested in becoming a software engineering manager, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 46.5% of software engineering managers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 41.3% of software engineering managers have master's degrees. Even though most software engineering managers have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a software engineering manager. When we researched the most common majors for a software engineering manager, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on software engineering manager resumes include doctoral degree degrees or associate degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a software engineering manager. In fact, many software engineering manager jobs require experience in a role such as software engineer. Meanwhile, many software engineering managers also have previous career experience in roles such as senior software engineer or software engineer lead.