Over drinks a few weeks ago, a friend told me he'd been offered a promotion, to an Engineering Manager role.

Leading Developers

A former advocate for engineers taking management roles now advises against it in 2026. Three main reasons: the rapid pace of AI-driven tech change makes it risky to step away from hands-on work; the management ladder has flattened significantly (Amazon raised IC-to-manager ratios by 15%), making Director/VP roles scarce; and Staff Engineer compensation now often exceeds EM pay across the industry by 20-30%. The author remains an EM personally because they enjoy it, but recommends senior engineers wait a couple of years before making the jump unless their gut strongly pulls them toward management.

Don't become an Engineering Manager

I am currently going through this myself. I made the transition to TPM as more of a interim position while I evolve my tech skills and regroup before taking on the next journey. Being an engineering manager was fun but they are definitely flattening the management structure. That being said, getting to focus more on software development has been a delight. I don’t regret anything.

For a while, post-COVID era, EMs salaries were devalued as engineering hires exploded in volume. That’s the imbalance that you are seeing now.
You could argue that EMs and above become more valuable over time based on expertise and seeing more shots on goal. This is especially valuable in the agentic era where more and more code is not being written by hand.

I was Assistant Manager, Digital Apps. My boss now made me Manager, AI Innovation &amp; Integration. I rarely code anymore, we use Claude hardcore