Engineering Manager

An end-to-end curriculum for engineers stepping into management and managers leveling up to director. Builds the people, delivery, strategy, and technical-credibility loops senior EM and director interviewers grade against — using named frameworks (RACI, DACI, DORA, Team Topologies) and the canonical engineering-leadership canon (Camille Fournier's *The Manager's Path*, Will Larson's *An Elegant Puzzle* + *Staff Engineer*, Andy Grove's *High Output Management*, Lara Hogan's *Resilient Management*). Every module ends with a 60-second interview-ready answer grounded in a real management scenario, not a memorized definition.

34 modules across 5 stages46 hours of content

Course curriculum

Stage 1

Pre-Foundations

1
The IC-to-Manager Decision
120 min
2
The Engineering Manager Landscape
120 min
3
Your First 30 Days as a Manager
90 min

Stage 2

Foundations

1
Mastering 1:1 Meetings
180 min
2
Giving and Receiving Feedback
150 min
3
Performance Reviews and Growth
180 min
4
Conflict Resolution for Managers
150 min

Stage 3

Core Competencies

1
Hiring and Interviewing Excellence
240 min
2
Team Building and Culture
210 min
3
Technical Decision-Making for Managers
180 min
4
Project Execution and Delivery
180 min

Stage 4

Execution Mastery

1
Stakeholder and Upward Management
180 min
2
Organizational Design and Team Structure
180 min
3
Engineering Processes at Scale
150 min
4
Managing Managers (Skip-Level Leadership)
150 min
5
Compensation, Leveling & Promotions
180 min
6
Headcount Planning & Hiring Strategy
120 min
7
On-Call, Reliability & Operational Health
120 min

Stage 5

Specialization

1
Engineering Strategy and Vision
180 min
2
DORA, SPACE, and DX Productivity Metrics
240 min
3
AI-Augmented Engineering Team Management: Adoption, Productivity, Ethics
240 min
4
AI Productivity Counter-Metric System: Resisting Goodhart in the Copilot Era
240 min
5
EM Coding and Code-Review Round: 2026 Format
240 min
6
EM Hypothetical Scenario Drills: Structured Judgment Under Pressure
240 min
7
Narrow-Deep System Design for EMs: 2026 Format
240 min
8
Performance Calibration Committees and Talent Reviews
120 min
9
Mentoring Principal+ Engineers: The Staff Track for People Managers
120 min
10
Multi-Quarter Modernization Migrations: Legacy to Modern
120 min
11
Internal Developer Platforms and Platform Engineering Teams
240 min
12
EM to Director: Managing Managers, Multi-Team Strategy, 50+ Org
240 min
13
Engineering Culture at Scale
150 min
14
Post-RIF Recovery: Rebuilding Trust After Layoffs
120 min
15
Cross-Functional Executive Leadership
150 min
16
Leading Remote & Distributed Engineering Teams
120 min