ATS Keywords & CV Guide for Engineering Manager
Engineering managers lead software engineering teams, balancing technical leadership with people management. They own team performance, hiring, and technical direction. When you apply for Engineering Manager roles, applicant tracking systems scan your CV for the skills, tools, and responsibility phrasing below. Use them in context within your experience bullets, not just in a skills list.
Top skills recruiters scan for
These are the skills that appear most frequently in Engineering Manager job descriptions. The importance score reflects how heavily each skill is weighted in the occupation's O*NET profile. Include the top 5 in your CV where you can prove them with real outcomes.
Scroll the table sideways to see all columns.
| Skill | Importance | Type |
|---|---|---|
| People Management |
92
|
soft |
| Technical Leadership |
90
|
technical |
| Communication |
90
|
soft |
| Coaching and Mentoring |
88
|
soft |
| System Design |
85
|
technical |
| Strategic Thinking |
85
|
soft |
| Cross-functional Collaboration |
85
|
soft |
| Hiring and Interviewing |
82
|
technical |
| Project Planning |
80
|
technical |
| Performance Management |
80
|
technical |
Tools & software to name explicitly
Recruiters and ATS systems search for specific tool names. List the ones you have real experience with in your skills section, and prove them in your bullets. Tools marked as hot are currently in high demand in job postings.
- Jira
- GitHub / GitLab
- Confluence / Notion
- Slack
- Lattice / 15FiveHot
- LinearHot
- DatadogHot
- Sentry
- Figma
- Zoom / Google Meet
Responsibility phrasing for your bullets
These are the core tasks a Engineering Manager is expected to perform. Use them as starting points for your CV bullets, but rewrite each one with your specific outcomes, scope, and context. Do not copy them verbatim.
- Lead and grow a team of software engineers, including hiring and performance management
- Set technical direction and make architectural decisions for the team
- Coach and mentor engineers on career growth and technical skills
- Collaborate with product and design on roadmap planning and prioritisation
- Ensure code quality, testing standards, and deployment reliability
- Manage team workload and balance feature delivery with technical debt
- Conduct regular 1:1s and provide feedback and career development guidance
- Represent the engineering team in cross-functional planning and stakeholder meetings
Other titles this role is posted under
Job postings for this role may use any of these titles. Search for all of them to find more relevant opportunities, and use the matching title in your CV's professional summary when applying.
- Engineering Lead
- Head of Engineering
- VP Engineering
- Tech Lead Manager
- Software Engineering Manager
- Director of Engineering
- Team Lead
Tailor your CV for Engineering Manager roles
Paste a job description and cvlinkd will place these keywords in your CV where the ATS and recruiter expect them.
Start freeRelated roles
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Includes information from O*NET 29.x by the U.S. Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration (ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license.