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Engineering Manager Requirements
6

Engineering Manager Requirements

Engineering Manager Requirements

(OP)
Hi all - would like your comments on the following. What are your thoughts on the requirements for an Engineering Manager in a small engineering company. In our case, the EM will be responsible for the day-to-day running of the design office, as well as responsibility for engineering issues.

The interview is in 2 weeks

Regards,

Bandh

RE: Engineering Manager Requirements

PE with ten years of experience in design, working for and with designers, from junior engineer to lead (not necessarily a "senior designer"). Good organization, scheduling talents, communication skills - writing and speaking. Ability to articulate scopes of work, design porject status, and ability to interface with PM - and to protect designers from PM. Is this person an active member of organizations and associations? That might mean he/she enjoys team work, etc.

RE: Engineering Manager Requirements

(OP)
Thanks for the response - just to explain, the current EM is changing to Operations Manager, so his job is now available, and hoping to be filled internallly. I intend to put my name into the ring.

Thanks

RE: Engineering Manager Requirements

I agree with DaveVikingPE.
But, depending on the company and type of engineering, a Masters degree would be minimum. Remember, not all engineer's are PE's in most companies. (different thread)

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks Pro 06/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home site (updated 06-21-05)
FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-716

RE: Engineering Manager Requirements

(OP)
Sorry guys, what does PE stand for?

RE: Engineering Manager Requirements

Professional Engineer.
Automotive doesn't have them? Just curious, never worked in auto design.

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks Pro 06/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home site (updated 06-21-05)
FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-716

RE: Engineering Manager Requirements

(OP)
Just wasn't familiar with the term - I'm in Ireland, so we don't use the term PE.

Regards,

RE: Engineering Manager Requirements

OK
I guess you must have an equiv, just not called PE.

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks Pro 06/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home site (updated 06-21-05)
FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-716

RE: Engineering Manager Requirements

PEng?

RE: Engineering Manager Requirements

More likely CEng or EurIng in Ireland. Either way automotive still doesn't have them, or, more to the point, use them.

That is, in most automotive engineering jobs ones professional status is not determined by membership of an institution, or exams.

Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

RE: Engineering Manager Requirements

One important qualification, not guaranteed present by exam, certificate, charter, membership, etc., is that any manager must effectively function as a

BIDIRECTIONAL BS FILTER

... with a very narrow passband, centered around getting the actual work done.

I.e., Top Management and Worker Bees must be isolated from each other's machinations.  Said filter must of necessity be capable of dissipating considerable energy outside the passband.

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

RE: Engineering Manager Requirements

What is that? I read something like that before.

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks 06 4.1/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 06-21-05)

RE: Engineering Manager Requirements

Basically what Mike is saying is that the typical manager must learn to recognise bulls__t. He/she must know enough about the industry/product/process to know that it does not take a machinist 3 hours to build a certain part, as said machinist will claim every single time.

Also from my own point of view two very important things: trust,
in your abilities and in your charges

personal charisma,
no one likes an ahole and will consequently do whatever they can to trip said ahole up

RE: Engineering Manager Requirements

Quote (MikeHalloran):

... Worker Bees must be isolated from each other's machinations.  Said filter must of necessity be capable of dissipating considerable energy outside the passband
I meant, I have read that quote somewhere before, in a newspaper or magazine, or something. Just curious where.

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks 06 4.1/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 06-21-05)

RE: Engineering Manager Requirements

Now I'm curious, too; I thought it was mine.  Not the concept of manager as filter; a manager explained it to me long ago.  But I thought bringing the analogy closer to realizable electronic filters was original.

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

RE: Engineering Manager Requirements

It is interesting. When I hear or read something familiar, it drives me nuts because I can't remember where I heard or read it at. oh well.
Hey! I would make a great Engineering Manager! ponder
tongue

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks 06 4.1/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 06-21-05)

RE: Engineering Manager Requirements

Some Characteristics that I believe a good Engineering Manager will possess. Maybe not all, but certainly many:
- Strong Leader
- At least 5, maybe 10 years engineering experience
- Open Minded
- Fair
- Mature
- Professional
- Motivational
- Competent
- Capable of getting things accomplished
- Ability to delegate
- Visionary for the future of the company
- Able to bring employees up and cultivate them

The list could go on...

Ed

RE: Engineering Manager Requirements

Mechanical definition:

Must amortize blows from the top, and send them in digestible proportions to the structure beneath. While kicks from beneath must be isolated from the top structure, or translated in appropriate language (ROI, money, consequences..), and prevent that the whole system collapses.

Sandwich position

Must be able to let others do the (physical) work.

RE: Engineering Manager Requirements

From my experience, an engineering manager:
A.  Looks out for himself and people above him in the food chain.
B.  Steals your ideas and presents them as his own,
C.  Hires those with the necessary skills and knowledge but is unwilling to fund training for his own people.
D.  Cares only about the short-term.  Can't see further than his next perforance review.
E.  Is into image-management.  Perception is more important that reality.
F.  Will distance himself from employees that focus on performance and "the long view" rather than on make good impressions.
G.  Promotes those who kiss his posterior and try to make him look good.

Can anyone add more to this list?


Tunalover

RE: Engineering Manager Requirements

Tunalover, I feel sorry for you if you're not being sarcastic.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."
Steven K. Roberts, Technomad
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

RE: Engineering Manager Requirements

I was a PE in the auto industry. I agree that a PE or masters is a good starting point for an engineering manager.

Many years ago when I was a limo converter for Cadillac, I was asked whether I had a PE. The significance is that they accepted implicitly the calculations of a PE engineer. In this case it was elastic-plastic calculations of side crash resistance of a sandwich beam installed in the stretch portion.

Limo got bad press and government intervention after a couple of fatals involving wedding parties in limos. One limo was cut in half by a dragster; three killed.

RE: Engineering Manager Requirements

Tunalover,

I find the awful caricature of an engineering manager you have portrayed to be scarily familiar. Once one or two establish themselves within a company they appoint more of their own kind and spread like a cancer though the organisation.

----------------------------------
  I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy it...

RE: Engineering Manager Requirements

Depending on the color of your sunglasses, you might as well read it as follows:

The engineering manager:

A.  Knows he needs the support of the people above him to run his department and makes sure he has it.
B.  Buys into any good ideas developed within his department and supports them vs senior management,
C.  Hires those with the necessary skills and knowledge but unfortunately his training budget is not unlimited.
D.  Cares about the short-term. Cares about his own perforance reviews. Cares about long-term too but does not necessarily discuss that with everyone in his department.
E.  Knows that in order to sell his plans, they do not only have to be good, but look good as well.
F.  Does not necessarily agree with everyone in his department having an opinion on "the long view" especially if they don't care to make a good impression.
G.  Tends to promote people with whom he can work effectively and who contributed to the department he is heading.

It all depends on your interpretation. Sarcasm and cynism is easy. Running an engineering dept is not.
(I am not an engineering mgr).

RE: Engineering Manager Requirements

epoisses,

Absolutely agree with your A-G. There is a fine line between following yours, or following tunalover's A-G, and  many get it wrong through inexperience, ineptitude, etc. Much of management is about how others percieve you: if a manager is perceived as fitting tunalover's description, then is that person really an effective manager? I suggest not.

A manager needs support from both sides - disgruntled subordinates will never perform as well as content ones, however hard they are pushed, and a manager without support from above will always struggle to perform his role. It is a tricky balance to strike - too many inexperienced managers forget that a good working relationship is based on trust and mutual respect with those above and below on the organisation tree. Often inexperience leads to a dictatorial attitude to subordinates, and a meek and cowed attitude toward superiors. Maybe it is driven by their own insecurity and lack of confidence. Perhaps the root of the problem is that people are being pushed into management too early?

----------------------------------
  I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy it...

RE: Engineering Manager Requirements

Since University I've worked for accountants, Landmen, Business Analysts, and a half dozen flavors of engineer.

I think that the assertions above that an Engineering Manager must be an experienced Engineer are just nonsense.  The best boss I ever had was an experienced engineer, but she didn't have nearly the engineering experience as the worst boss I ever had.  The best boss I ever had is ending her career (after a stint as an on-campus recruiting manager) as an HR rep, and I will give long odds that she is superb at that as well.  I have nearly zero respect for HR, but if the function must exist I'd like to see people with integrity in the role.

I think of a boss as a Tom Terrific hat (cartoon from the 1950's, the hat is a funnel).  If you turn it with the small side up, most of the raining BS is deflected.  If you turn it with the small side down then it becomes a BS concentrator and the underlings get too much crap and the upper management hears too much nonsense.

As I was reading this thread I was trying think of the characteristics of good and bad bosses that I've had or worked closely with and the single characteristic that ties both groups firmly into their grouping is Personal Integrity.  A good boss will believe what they are saying (or will say nothing) and will be honest about what they are passing up or down.  A bad boss will try to tell everyone what: (a) makes the boss seem to look good; and (b) what the boss perceives the person wants to hear.  

A good boss also must be a politician, must be decisive, and must be able to balance a need for deliberation against a need for "good enough" answers, but if neither staff nor top management can believe them they won't be effective.

I've never had a boss that could do my job and I've rarely had a subordinate whose job I could easily step into.  If the Engineering Manager is worth their salt then their staff will do technical presentations, not them so where is the overwhelming need for engineering experience?

David

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