It really depends on the size of the company you are seeking for. I have worked in start-ups and one of the largest financial institution. For start-ups: As l

It really depends on the size of the company you are seeking for. I have worked in start-ups and one of the largest financial institution. For start-ups: As long as you are good, you will have a say in most of the area you mentioned (maybe not policy and long term objectives) For sizeable company: How projects are done - as development manager, you will be one of the many stakeholder in the project. Instead of thinking you will be dictating how a project is done, your role will more likely in leading some sort of committee where decisions are agreed upon by all the stakeholders. Technical choices - the architecture team is responsible for deciding on the technology choices. Policy - policy change is usually driven by internal, external audit. You will be assigned to take care of the aftermath of the audits depending on your area of expertise. Technical design - manager usually don't have the technical know-how on the technical design Long term objectives - these are coming from the investor level by setting ROI target for CEO to meet. It will subsequently trickle down to every level in the organization. It sounds like you have a romantic notion of what a managerial role entails. In this day and age, management are usually the ones getting slashed. The smarter ones usually stay in senior technical roles because the compensation in the managerial role doesn't justify the risk and the time involved.