Managing Engineers: Start a Career in Engineering Management

Engineering Manager Career

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The average value of the Bachelor degree needed to become a Engineering managers is $2,665,408.00.

Points of interest

The majority of engineering managers have a high level of formal education in fields related to engineering and science.
The majority of engineering managers have extensive work experience as engineers, mathematicians, or scientists.
It is projected that engineers and scientists that have the best communication skills as well as advanced technical and technological knowledge and that stay abreast of new developments in their respective fields will have the best prospects of advancing to become engineering managers.
36% of jobs are in industries related to manufacturing services. 33% of jobs are in scientific, technical, and professional services.

Nature of the Work

The field of engineering management is a unique, specialized branch of management that deals with the application of management in the engineering sector. Engineering management is important because of the inherent technical nature of the field of engineering, and because of the distinctive personality types prevalent in the profession. Engineering managers are responsible for planning, designing, directing, and coordinating design, research, as well as production activities. Engineering managers supervise scientists, engineers, technicians, as well as a wide variety of support personnel. Engineering managers are well versed in engineering and they utilize their knowledge in the management, oversight and coordination of a number of varied activities. One of the major tasks of engineering managers it to determine technical as well as scientific goals that are within the broad outlines provided to them by their organization’s top executives. These goals can be diverse and can include developing new products, improving the organization’s manufacturing processes, as well as bringing about advances in scientific research. Examples of projects they may be tasked with include the identification of technical problems that are preventing the successful completion of an ongoing project, and the development of the overall outline and concept of a completely new product. Engineering managers are called upon in to troubleshoot ongoing projects as well as to exercise their skills and creativity in developing new ones.

Apart from their technical and scientific skills and knowledge, engineering managers are required to call upon a considerable knowledge of administrative procedures that can be as varied as supervision, hiring, as well as budgeting. Engineering managers hire engineers, scientists, technicians, and support personnel and assign them to undertake and carry out specific distinct tasks that comprise a project as a whole. Their responsibilities also include verifying and checking the technical accuracy of the work performed by the employees as well as the soundness of the methods employed by them, supervising the employees’ work, reviewing the output, collecting data and calculating metrics to determine efficiency and gauge the level of performance, performing status checks and periodic reviews, as well as establishing and perfecting policies, standards, and administrative procedures that are employed in the organization and in the various projects they work in.

An important component of engineering managers’ responsibilities is coordinating their units’ activities with those of other organizations or units. They spend a great amount of time coordinating as well as communicating, due to which their communications skills are very important. Engineering managers are also called upon to confer with higher strata of management including as well as above their immediate reporting supervisors, and they also interact extensively with managers from production, financial, marketing, as well as other departments, as with materials and equipment suppliers and third party vendors and contractors.

Engineering managers supervise a wide variety of personnel. The people they supervise can be those that design or develop products, machinery, processes, and systems, and they may also be involved in directing as well as coordinating operations, production, maintenance, testing, as well as quality assurance in industrial plants. Engineering managers often are required to place a lot of emphasis on data collection and interpretation; in order to collect, interpret, study, and present their projects’ performance statistics to higher management. As in all areas of management, there is much emphasis on administrative work, as well as on organizational and paper work.

Some of the activities that engineering managers are required to carry out include:

Manage projects. This includes coordinating, projects, directing them, creating detailed plans and task breakdown structures that are employed to define, assign, as well as accomplish goals, as well as directing and handling the technical activities and the integration thereof.
Confer, consult, and negotiate with clients in order to prepare as well as finalize project and product specifications.
Make presentations to clients with the purpose of explaining reports, findings, and proposals.
Review, approve, as well as direct product designs and changes therein.
Be involved in the process of interviewing and recruiting new employees.
Be involved in overseeing the maintenance and development of high levels of competence in the staff
Assign, evaluate, and direct the work of subordinates.
Mentor and groom the subordinates and co-workers.
Maintain charge of all project related administrative functions such as writing and reviewing reports, making operational decisions about purchasing services or materials, approving new expenses, and enforcing rules.
Prepare contracts, bids, and budgets.
Make projections about future human resource requirements.
Assess and plan whether projects are feasible, perform analysis of market demands, resource requirements, and technologies.
Interface and interact with senior management, marketing and sales personnel and production staff in order to discuss and finalize procedures and specifications of projects.
Develop as well as implement standards, procedures, and policies for the technical and engineering work carried out in the firm’s laboratories, departments, and services.
Plan as well as direct the installation, operation, maintenance, testing, as well as repair of equipment and facilities.
Coordinate with other departments within the company or firm, as well as with vendors as well as other personnel that are involved in running or supplying the project.

Work Environment

Engineering managers usually spend most of their time in their offices. Nevertheless, some engineering managers may also work in laboratory environments, where they undergo exposure to much of the conditions that research scientists experience, whereas some engineering managers may work in industrial plants, and be exposed to the conditions therein, which would be the same that industrial production personnel and workers are exposed to. Engineering managers typically spend long hours working in order to be able to meet the deadlines imposed on their projects. It was found that nearly half of the engineering managers worked more than forty hours per week in the year 2008. Engineering managers often come under considerable stress due to the pressure to meet scientific or technical goals or achieve project results within a tight budget or within a short deadline. Engineering managers nearly always spend more hours working than the people they supervise, which can lead to a deteriorated quality of personal and family life. Nevertheless, engineering managers find their work rewarding and satisfying technically as well as intellectually stimulating and challenging.

Training, Other Qualifications, and Advancement

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Engineering managers play a crucial role in the organization. They are required to have strong technical knowledge and clearly understand the details of the work that is performed by their subordinates, and they must be able to guide them in their work. They must also be able to explain the work clearly in non technical terms to prospective customers as well as to senior management. Because of these varied responsibilities, engineering managers typically have a high level of training as an engineer, mathematician, or scientist. Education and Training:

Most engineering managers advance to supervisory or managerial positions after many years of working as engineers, technicians, or scientists. The majority of engineering managers have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree in science or engineering, although many of them have higher degrees such as a master’s degree or a doctorate. These degrees serve the qualifying degrees for engineering managers, as they are required to have a deep level of knowledge in their field. Apart from these engineering or scientific degrees, engineering managers often gain management and business skills by studying for and completing a master’s degree in business administration (MBA), or a MEM – which is an engineering management master’s degree, before they advance to supervisory and then management positions. Usually, those that are interested in management that is not specifically technical prefer to earn an MBA, while those that have a preference for management in technical areas opt to obtain an MEM degree. These specialized degrees give them a deeper understanding of business and management processes and best practices, and equip them for the often grueling multi tasking that their responsibilities entail. Often, large firms offer some of the courses that are required in degree programs on site, as a form of in house training. Other qualifications: Engineering managers have to be specialists in the work and tasks which they supervise. They need to gain a good deal of experience as well as assume progressively higher managerial responsibilities in order to advance to their ultimate positions as engineering managers. Employers are always on the lookout for engineers that demonstrate excellent communications as well as administrative skills and also are technically proficient in their field or specialty. They look for engineers that have clear leadership skills because they must be able to effectively and confidently coordinate projects as well as lead diverse groups of personnel. Traits of engineering managers:

The following are some of the traits commonly found in engineering managers:

They are good in coordinating and directing activities.
They are able to create detailed plans with the objective of accomplishing goals.
They are skilled in directing and integrating technical activities.
They are able to interview and recruit employees, assign, control, direct, supervise, and evaluate their work, as well as oversee the maintenance and development of high levels of competence in the staff.
They have excellent communication skills, both verbal as well as written.
They are able to speak in public.
They can make presentations and explain findings, reports, and proposals to clients and top management personnel.
They can talk to a wide variety of people from varied backgrounds.
They can take a lot of responsibility. They can prepare bids for new projects as well as contracts, prepare budgets and human resource requirement forecasts, and also direct the negotiations and bids for contracts of research and development.
They have leadership qualities. They are able to enforce rules and gain the respect and obedience of their subordinates. These subordinates can hail from a wide variety of backgrounds, and can include scientists, engineers, production workers, and technicians. These personnel have a wide range of temperaments and pre dispositions, and need to be handled differently.
Engineering managers possess the leadership skills to perform this task well.
They are hard working. Engineering managers are known to work harder and longer hours than the employees they supervise. This is essential as engineering managers typically have a lot of work on their plates every day and are often required to massively multi task. Advancement:

Engineering managers have the benefit of excellent, high quality education and can progressively advance to high leadership positions in their disciplines, as well as within their organizations as leaders, if they are so inclined. Although it takes time and experience to advance to some positions, it must be said that the sky is the limit for engineering managers as far as professional and career advancement goes. Engineering managers may diversify and become managers in areas such as human resources, marketing, sales, global finance, international manufacturing, business strategy, customer relationship, supplier relationship, purchasing, and many other non technical fields. It must be remembered that within hi tech firms and companies, those that manage in non technical fields are often required to have the very same technical as well as specialized knowledge that managers in highly technical areas possess.

As an example, the employers that run an engineering or technical firm will often prefer to hire experienced engineers to perform the job of sales workers. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, the firm needs people who have specialized knowledge of engineering in to market its complex and highly technical services. The personnel employed as sales persons must thoroughly understand the product and be able to explain and market it to non technical, lay persons. Secondly, companies often conduct restructuring and reshuffles of their work force for various reasons such as the need to inject fresh blood into existing projects as well as to keep people fresh and challenged. In such a case, it is very helpful if all personnel are well conversant in all aspects of engineering, so that they can be swiftly moved to now positions and projects. Therefore, such sales managers with engineering backgrounds can easily advance with time to become sales managers. This is only one example of advancement; people with backgrounds in engineering can advance to virtually any high managerial level in any department in an analogous manner.

Employment

Engineering managers held 184,000 jobs in the year 2008. This figure is projected to increase by 11,300 to 195,400 by the year 2018, which represents an increase of six per cent. The breakup of employment of engineering managers by industry is as follows:

Engineering, Architecture, and related services: 39,680
Management of Enterprises and Companies: 7,430
Manufacturing of Electro medical, Measuring, Control, and Navigational Instruments: 11,600
Manufacturing of Semi Conductors and other Electronic Components: 8,340
Scientific R&D (Research and Development): $150,790
Spectator Sports: 40
Lessors of Intangible Nonfinancial Assets (with the exception of Copyrighted Works): 8
Merchant Wholesalers of Commercial and Professional Supplies and Equipment: 710
Scientific R&D (Research and Development): 8,970
Extraction of Oil and Gas: 780

The five states that employ the most engineering managers are:

Connecticut: 4,180
District of Columbia: 1,610
California: 32,660
Michigan: 8,650
Massachusetts: 5,990

Job Outlook

The Bureau of Labor Statistics data projects that employment of engineering managers will increase at the rate of eight per cent over the coming ten years, from the year 2008 through the year 2018. This is the average growth rate for all other occupations combined. The factors that affect the growth rate of employment of the engineers as well as scientists that are managed by engineering managers will also affect the growth rate of employment of engineering managers. In recent years, there has been a new emerging trend of out sourcing specialized development and research activities in many engineering services as well as specialized scientific services firms. This has led to a trend of consolidating management positions, which will cause a somewhat slower growth in jobs for engineering managers. Job Prospects:

There are several growing and emerging areas and technologies which will benefit engineering managers in the long run and provide a good amount of job growth. Engineering managers will see excellent opportunities in fast expanding fields of engineering, examples of which are biomedical engineering and environmental engineering. Other traditional areas such as mechanical and electrical engineering will witness slower job growth and prospects for engineering managers. Those scientists as well as engineers that have the best communication skills as well as advanced technical and technological knowledge and that stay abreast of new developments in their respective fields will have the best prospects of advancing to become engineering managers. In light of the fact that engineering managers are already actively and deeply involved in the marketing, production, and financial activities of their organizations, some business management and administrative skills as well as experience will prove to be especially advantageous for those among them that are seeking to advance to management positions. Apart from all the opportunities mentioned above pertaining to new opportunities arising due to job and employment growth, many job openings will be created as a result of having to replace managerial personnel that either move into other areas and occupations, or those that retire.

Projections

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) website indicates that the employment of engineering managers is expected to grow at roughly the same rate as the average rate of growth for all other occupations. Those engineers that have excellent business management skills as well as strong communications skills are expected to make the most of these opportunities for growth.

Earnings

According to data at the website of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), engineering managers earn an outstanding mean annual salary of $122,810. If this is broken down into percentile ranges, it is seen that those with earnings in the 10 percentile range earn an annual salary of $75,350, those with earnings in the 25 percentile range earn an annual salary of $93,040, those with earnings in the median 50 percentile range earn annual salaries of $117,000, and those whose earnings are in the 90 percentile range earn annual salaries of $144,520. There were 184,000 engineering managers employed in the year 2008. This figure is expected to rise to 195,400 in the coming ten years, until the year 2018. This represents a rise in employment by roughly six per cent. This taken into perspective coupled with the excellent remuneration that engineering managers receive, make it amply clear that engineering management is a high earning and rewarding line of work.

Wages: The following are the annual mean wages for engineering managers, broken down by the industries they work in:

Engineering, Architecture, and related services: $123,850
Management of Enterprises and Companies: $128,190
Manufacturing of Electro medical, Measuring, Control, and Navigational Instruments: $133,290
Manufacturing of Semi Conductors and other Electronic Components: $139,670 • Spectator Sports: $194,860
Lessors of Intangible Nonfinancial Assets (with the exception of Copyrighted Works): $150,890
Merchant Wholesalers of Commercial and Professional Supplies and Equipment: $150,390
Scientific R&D (Research and Development): $150,790
Extraction of Oil and Gas: $151,650

The following are the annual mean wages for engineering managers, broken down by the States they work in:

Connecticut: $119,360
District of Columbia: $126,850
California: $142,120
Michigan: $113,380
Massachusetts: $138,480
Texas: $134,100
New Jersey: $133,520
New York: $133,460

The five States that pay the most for engineering managers are:

California: $142,120
Massachusetts: $138,480
Texas: $134,100
New Jersey: $133,520
New York: $133,460

Related Occupations

The nature of the field of engineering management and the educational qualifications required for the job are such that there is a wide range of related fields similar to engineering management. Some of these occupations include:

Industrial Safety Engineers
Petroleum Engineers
Health Engineers
Marine Architects
Civil Engineers
Marine Engineers
Aerospace Engineers
Nuclear Engineers
Electrical Drafters
Mining Engineers
Mining Safety Engineers
Geological Engineers

Sources of Additional Information: http://ewh.ieee.org/soc/ems/

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