April 20, 2026
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Key takeaways:
- The coordination layer is shrinking (and taking some managers with it). Org flattening and AI are compressing the work that defined many engineering manager roles.
- People management is necessary, but no longer sufficient.
- The floor is rising, are you rising with it? Those who don’t stay close to the code will be the most surprised when the role moves on without them.
Consider two engineering managers in the same organization. Imagine the founder asks why the payments service is slow under load.
One manager needs to set up a meeting with a senior engineer, wait for the answer, and relay it back.
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April 20, 2026
