An EM CV should show team outcomes and how you achieved them (people + systems), not just “managed a team”.
See the general guide: IT CV template (Romania).
TL;DR
- Lead with outcomes: delivery, quality, reliability, hiring, retention.
- Mention scope: team size, responsibilities, and technical context.
- Show decisions and trade-offs, not just reporting.
Quick checklist (before you send)
- Title: “Engineering Manager” / “Head of Engineering” / “Tech Lead (people management)” (as appropriate).
- 3–6 strong bullets: delivery, reliability, people, systems.
- Mention scope: team size, org setup (1–2 teams), product area, autonomy level.
- Include 1–2 examples of system change: process, ownership, quality, on‑call, roadmap alignment.
Recommended structure (EM)
- Header (clean links)
- Summary (2–4 lines: teams/products + leadership style + what you’re targeting)
- Experience (outcomes + how you got there)
- Selected initiatives (2–3, with impact)
- Skills (delivery, people, systems, stakeholder mgmt)
- Education/Certs (short)
What a strong bullet looks like (Engineering Manager)
Useful formula: Outcome (team/product) + context (team/stack) + system change (people/process/tech) + result.
Examples:
- “Reduced lead time by ~20% by clarifying ownership, setting WIP limits, and improving slicing.”
- “Reduced severe incidents by improving on‑call (runbooks, postmortems) and raising observability standards.”
- “Improved ramp‑up for new hires through a structured onboarding plan and pairing.”
No numbers? Use signals:
- more predictable delivery, fewer escalations, fewer regressions, better onboarding, higher autonomy in the team.
Bullet library (Engineering Management)
Pick 6–10 that are actually true for you, then tailor them to the role.
Team outcomes
- “Improved delivery throughput by [change], reducing lead time by [X%].”
- “Reduced incidents by improving on-call process and ownership.”
- “Reduced scope creep via clear prioritization and documented trade‑offs with stakeholders.”
- “Shipped a major initiative in phases, reducing risk and keeping feedback loops short.”
People leadership
- “Hired [N] engineers and improved onboarding, reducing ramp-up time.”
- “Introduced structured feedback and growth plans, improving retention.”
- “Clarified roles and expectations, reducing ambiguity and friction.”
- “Coached engineers through 1:1s and goals, increasing team autonomy.”
Technical leadership
- “Raised engineering standards via code review culture and quality gates.”
- “Led a migration plan (risks, milestones), reducing delivery disruption.”
- “Standardized observability (logs/metrics/traces), reducing time‑to‑investigate incidents.”
- “Introduced postmortems with tracked follow‑ups, reducing incident recurrence.”
Stakeholder management
- “Made decisions under ambiguity by presenting options + risks + recommendation.”
- “Reduced escalations via transparent status, risks, and next steps.”
- “Negotiated trade‑offs (time/scope/quality) while protecting the main outcome.”
Common mistakes
- Writing “managed a team” without what improved.
- Missing scale: no team size / responsibility scope.
- No quality/reliability signals (for roles where it matters).
Keywords (use only what you actually did)
- delivery, predictability, lead time, throughput
- on‑call, incident response, postmortems
- hiring, coaching, performance management (professional framing)
- stakeholder alignment, cross‑team dependencies
- standards, quality gates, observability
Note on confidentiality
Avoid customer names, internal project code names, and sensitive numbers. It’s enough to describe the outcome, scope, and what changed in the system (process/ownership/quality).
Engineering Manager CV template (copy/paste)
FAQ
Should I mention being hands‑on?
Only if it’s relevant. You can mention 1–2 contributions (design reviews, incident support, standards), but keep the focus on outcomes and systems.
How do I show impact without hard metrics?
Use signals: predictable delivery, fewer escalations, fewer regressions, smoother onboarding, higher team autonomy.
