Technical Lead / Engineering Manager Roadmap

The path from an excellent engineer to a talented technical leader, guiding teams and shaping products.

🎯 Role & Responsibilities

This is a hybrid role that combines deep technical expertise with management skills. They are not only the ones who solve the toughest technical problems but also the ones who lead, develop the team, and ensure technical decisions align with business goals.

Roadmap by Stages

Stage 1: Solid Technical Foundation (Prerequisite)

Goal: Achieve Senior level in a specialized field
  • Deep Expertise: Master an area like Frontend, Backend, Mobile, DevOps...
  • Practical Experience: Has participated in building and operating real systems.
  • Autonomy: Can handle complex tasks from start to finish independently.
  • Code Quality: Writes clean, maintainable, and optimizable code.

Stage 2: Developing Influence Skills

Goal: Expand influence beyond personal work scope
  • Mentoring: Guide and help junior engineers in the team.
  • Code Review: Provide constructive feedback to improve the team's code quality.
  • Knowledge Sharing: Organize tech talks, write technical documentation.
  • Effective Communication: Clearly present technical ideas to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Stage 3: Project & Process Management

Goal: Ensure projects are executed effectively
  • Development Methodologies: Master Agile, Scrum, Kanban.
  • Planning: Break down large requirements into small, manageable tasks.
  • Estimation: Assess the complexity and completion time of tasks.
  • Delegation: Assign tasks to the right person at the right time.
  • Risk Management: Identify and have plans to handle potential issues.

Stage 4: System Design & Technical Direction

Goal: Make critical architectural decisions
  • System Design: Design scalable, reliable, and secure systems.
  • Technology Selection: Evaluate and decide on the tech stack for new projects.
  • Technical Debt: Understand and strategically manage technical debt.
  • Setting Standards: Establish coding conventions and best practices for the team.

Stage 5: People Management & Team Building

Goal: Develop and engage team members
  • 1-on-1 Meetings: Regularly meet to understand concerns, aspirations, and unblock team members.
  • Career Development: Create career development paths for each individual in the team.
  • Recruitment: Participate in interviews, build and grow the engineering team.
  • Team Culture: Create a positive, open, and high-performance work environment.
  • Performance Management: Evaluate, provide feedback, and recognize contributions of team members.

🚀 Next Career Paths

Senior Engineering Manager

Manages multiple teams or a larger engineering department.

Principal / Staff Engineer

Returns to the individual contributor (IC) path, solving the most complex company-wide technical problems.

Solutions Architect

Focuses entirely on designing system architecture for large projects.