Hello again 👋.

Welcome back to the Roles in OEMs and SIs series where I am giving you an introduction to the different job roles that exist in Original Equipment Manufacturer and System Integration companies.

In the previous parts of the series, I introduced you to the Owner/Executive. In that post, I explained what the Owner of an OEM or SI company does on a daily basis and what key metrics they track.

In this part of the series, we will learn what the Engineering Manager does in an OEM or SI company.

Before we move on, I would like to take a moment to introduce myself to anyone who might be new to the blog.

My name is Ken Bourke and I have worked as an automation professional for almost a decade. During this time, I have worked on large global projects in different industries around the world.

In the last year, I have started producing content online to share my knowledge through free blog posts and free or very reasonably priced courses.

If you get some value out of this post then consider checking out my courses, joining the mailing list using the form at the bottom of this page, or, if you’re feeling very generous, buying me a coffee using the Buy Me a Coffee widget on this page.

With that bit of shameless self-promotion out of the way, let’s get back to talking about what the Engineering Manager does in an OEM or SI company.

Engineering Manager

The Engineering Manager is typically a very important person at an OEM or SI company.

The Engineering Manager is generally a technical person who manages people. This means that the Engineering Manager is responsible for managing the engineering staff and making decisions about the technology used by the engineering team.

The Engineering Manager is usually the decision-maker for all staff-related decisions at an OEM or SI company. That means the engineering manager will decide when it is time to hire new people, what compensation engineers on the team get, and what training is provided to new and existing hires.

An Engineering Manager usually has a goal to increase or maintain the profitability of projects carried out by the company.

To help meet these goals, the Engineering Manager may put technical controls into place to reduce project costs. An example of a technical control is standardization where the company tries to reuse existing designs and technology in new projects.

Since a proven solution is reused, the engineering hours required to design this solution are reduced and the risk involved with using the solution are mitigated. Engineering labor is a major cost for OEM and SI companies so any control that reduces labor costs in a project can have a dramatic impact on the company’s profitability.

Wrap Up

In this post, I introduced you to the Engineering Manager in an OEM or SI business as part of my Roles in OEMs and SIs series.

I explained what the Engineering Manager does and what metrics are tracked by the Engineering Manager.

As I mentioned, the Engineering Manager is responsible for managing the Engineering Staff.

In my next post, I will introduce you to the Engineering Staff by talking about the different engineering disciplines that are found at OEM and SI companies and the responsibilities that individual engineers have.

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