This reads more like an attempt to extract “powers” that managers have and give them to staff / principal engineers, but I think this is a bad mistake. The peo

This reads more like an attempt to extract “powers” that managers have and give them to staff / principal engineers, but I think this is a bad mistake. The people in those roles should influence those things, sure, but not “own” them, under some faulty idea that management doesn’t lead or own strategic and technical roadmaps or execution. An engineering manager is someone who takes inputs from their immediate team or staff, as well as cross-functional stakeholders like product managers, directors, staff/principal engineers, and more. Then you synthesize that into team or org investments: projects, roadmaps, staffing, resources, tools. An engineering manager is not someone who “just executes 1-1s and fills out HR feedback cycles.” They are more like a staff engineer or architect who takes an expanded point of view to include team dynamics, career growth, budgets, strategy and resources into the solution design process. This often just is a promotion above staff or principal IC roles because it usurps and supersedes a lot of that work while also involving additional new work managing career growth, hiring, training, resource investment, etc. I’d put product manager and engineering manager at the top of the promotion pyramid (excluding director / VP / executive roles). Staff and Principal ICs are next, then the rest of ICs.