Why I am choosing engineering management now

Posted 5 February 2026 in Leadership

I'm back on the job market, and over the past few weeks I have been having a lot of conversations with recruiters, hiring managers, and engineering leaders. Different companies, different roles, different contexts, but many of the same questions.

Why now? Why management? What does leadership mean to you?

Answering those questions has forced me to slow down and take stock of how I got here.

I have been building software for over twenty years. During that time, my role has shifted back and forth between senior engineer, technical lead, and team leadership.

Looking only at job titles over the past decade does not always tell that full story. In several roles, I was already doing much of the work typically associated with an engineering manager or even a head of engineering. I was responsible for delivery, cross-team coordination, mentoring, and technical direction, just without the formal recognition or title.

There were periods where I was leading teams, shaping delivery, and spending most of my time on people and planning. There were also periods where changes in company structure or priorities pulled me back into hands-on development. At the time, some of those shifts felt like setbacks - but in hindsight they have added depth.

Spending more time back in the code has kept me grounded in the realities of delivery. It reinforced empathy for engineers under pressure and sharpened my sense of what actually helps teams ship.

Those same detours also gave me deeper exposure to product management and business analysis than I might not have otherwise have had. I've spent time close to requirements, stakeholders, trade-offs, and constraints. I've seen first-hand how product decisions land with engineering teams, and how technical realities can push back on product ambition. This wasn't always planned, but it has shaped how I think about leadership.

One of the benefits of these recent conversations is that they have surfaced patterns.

When I talk about the work I have enjoyed most, it is rarely about individual technical wins. It is about creating clarity, improving how teams make decisions, and helping engineers grow in confidence and judgment.

When I talk about the problems that frustrate me, they are rarely about technology. They are about misalignment, churn, and avoidable stress.

So "Why now?"

Choosing engineering management now feels less like a change in direction and more like committing to the work I have been circling for years.

I am not moving away from technical work because I am tired of it. I still care deeply about code quality, system design, and sound engineering decisions. What has changed is where I believe my experience has the most leverage.

I want to spend my time building environments where good work can happen reliably, not just occasionally.

I want to be accountable for teams, not just systems. I want to work on how decisions are made, how priorities are set, and how engineers are supported as they grow. I want to shape environments where good work happens consistently, rather than stepping in when things are already under pressure.

Engineering management comes with less visible output and more responsibility for outcomes that I do not directly control. It also offers the kind of leverage I am looking for at this stage of my career.