Master's in Engineering Management (2026)

If you want to learn Engineering Management (EM) seriously, I'd recommend following a mix of experienced engineering leaders, management coaches, and people who write about building high-performing engineering organizations.

These are the people I'd put at the top of your list.

1. The 8 people I'd recommend following

1. Will Larson

My top recommendation

Focus: Engineering strategy, organizational design, scaling teams, leadership systems.

Start with: An Elegant Puzzle.

Blog: lethain.com

2. Camille Fournier

Focus: Becoming an engineering manager, managing managers, career progression, technical leadership.

Start with: The Manager's Path.

Blog: Elided Branches

3. Lara Hogan

Focus: One-on-ones, feedback, coaching, psychological safety, team health.

Start with: Resilient Management.

Website: larahogan.me

4. Charity Majors

Focus: Engineering culture, technical leadership, high-performing teams, engineering productivity.

Particularly interesting for understanding the relationship between engineering and management.

Blog: charity.wtf

5. Michael Lopp (Rands)

Focus: Managing engineers, leadership challenges, organizational dynamics, difficult conversations.

Start with: Managing Humans.

Blog: Rands in Repose

6. Julie Zhuo

Focus: People management, giving feedback, developing talent, becoming a good manager.

Start with: The Making of a Manager.

Website: juliezhuo.com

7. Gergely Orosz

Focus: How engineering organizations operate, hiring, compensation, engineering culture, industry trends.

Subscribe to: The Pragmatic Engineer.

Newsletter: The Pragmatic Engineer

8. Tanya Reilly

Focus: Senior engineers, technical leadership, invisible work, growing technical talent.

Start with: The Staff Engineer's Path.

Website: noidea.dog

Engineering leadership reading listLeadership & Management blogsCamille Fournier – O’Reilly Author(s)Reading

2. Newsletters and communities worth following

3. Five books I'd prioritize

The Manager's Path - Camille Fournier

Your foundational engineering management handbook.

An Elegant Puzzle - Will Larson

How to build and scale engineering organizations.

Resilient Management - Lara Hogan

How to become a better people manager.

High Output Management - Andy Grove

Managing performance, meetings, leverage, and execution.

The Making of a Manager - Julie Zhuo

Developing the fundamentals of people leadership.

30 Essential Resources for Engineering Managers in 2026Leadership Reads: The best books and articles for new managersBecoming an engineering manager

4. My suggested learning path

I'd approach engineering management through these six areas:

1. People management: Coaching, feedback, one-on-ones and career development.
2. Technical leadership: Architecture, technical decisions and engineering quality.
3. Execution: Planning, prioritization, delivery and managing dependencies.
4. Team building: Hiring, retaining talent and developing senior engineers.
5. Organizational leadership: Team structures, strategy and managing managers.
6. Business alignment: Working with Product, Design and executive leadership.

5. One question to tailor this recommendation

What is your current position?

I can then put together a structured 90-day Engineering Management learning roadmap, including who to follow, what to read, and what to practice each week.

To master Engineering Management (EM), you need insights blending people leadership, organizational design, and technical strategy. The industry's best thinkers share their frameworks through blogs, newsletters, and books.

1. The Core Thought Leaders & Authors

• Will Larson (Author of An Elegant Puzzle and Staff Engineer; Blog: Irrational Exuberance) The Big List of Engineering Management Resources - March 2022

• Why follow: Will is one of the definitive voices on scaling engineering organizations. His writing provides concrete metrics, organizational models, and systems thinking for handling tech debt, team growth, and architectural ownership.

• Camille Fournier (Author of The Manager's Path; Blog: Elided Branches) 13 Best Engineering Management Blogs to Read in 2021

• Why follow: Her book is practically the bible for moving from an Individual Contributor (IC) to a tech lead, manager, director, and beyond. Her blog regularly dissects organizational health and executive leadership.

• Lara Hogan (Author of Resilient Management; Site: larahogan.me)

• Why follow: Lara specializes in the human side of management. Follow her for tactical advice on engineering coaching, handling difficult feedback, advocating for your team, and building inclusive, psychologically safe team cultures.

• Gergely Orosz (Author of The Pragmatic Engineer) The Pragmatic Engineer

• Why follow: While covering broad software engineering trends, Gergely frequently writes deep-dives into engineering management practices at top tech companies, engineering compensation structures, developer productivity, and how high-performing teams operate.

• Charity Majors (CTO of Honeycomb; Blog: charity.wtf)

• Why follow: Charity offers unfiltered, pragmatic takes on engineering culture, engineering-driven product development, hiring, operational excellence, and why management must stay deeply connected to technical reality.

2. Essential Newsletters & Communities

• Software Lead Weekly (Curated by Oren Ellenbogen) The Big List of Engineering Management Resources - March 2022

• A weekly email rounding up the best articles, tools, and lessons on leadership and management from around the web. It is a massive time-saver for staying on top of EM trends.

• LeadDev (leaddev.com)

• The premier global community and content platform for engineering leadership. They host incredible conferences and publish articles covering everything from technical strategy to product delivery and management career paths.

3. Essential Books to Start With

If you want to fast-track your learning, these three books by the leaders above are foundational:

1. The Manager's Path by Camille Fournier (Best for understanding the career progression from tech lead to VP).

2. An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management by Will Larson (Best for practical frameworks on handling team metrics and organizational design).

3. Resilient Management by Lara Hogan (Best for day-to-day people management and empathy-driven leadership).

Learning engineering management (EM) requires balancing technical context, team psychology, organizational design, and execution strategy.

The top industry leaders, writers, and newsletters to follow offer deep, practical frameworks for navigating the transition and scaling engineering organizations:

• ** Gergely Orosz** - Author of The Pragmatic Engineer, widely considered the gold standard newsletter for engineering practices, compensation, and organizational culture inside big tech and high-growth startups. Best Blogs for Tech Leaders and Engineering Managers in 202625 Engineering Managers Worth Following on LinkedIn

• ** Will Larson** - CTO and author of the blog Irrational Exuberance, writing deeply structural guides on organizational design, career ladders, and technical strategy. His books Staff Engineer and An Engineering World Without Managers are essential reading. Best Blogs for Tech Leaders and Engineering Managers in 2026

• ** Camille Fournier** - Author of The Manager's Path, the definitive manual for moving from a software engineer to a technical manager, director, and CTO. Following her provides timeless mental models for handling difficult team dynamics. The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth

• ** Oren Ellenbogen** - Curator of the Software Lead Weekly newsletter, a fantastic curation focusing heavily on the human side of software development, culture, and leadership.

• Luca Rossi - Author of Refactoring, a high-signal newsletter covering engineering management, software craftsmanship, and team productivity.

To help tailor this, let me know:

• Are you transitioning from an individual contributor role into your first EM position, or are you already managing teams?
• Do you prefer learning via newsletters, books, or podcasts?

Follow Gergely Orosz (The Pragmatic Engineer) for practical perspectives on engineering management and career transitions. For broader learning, explore Camille Fournier (The Manager’s Path), Will Larson, Lara Hogan, and Charity Majors.(blog.pragmaticengineer.com)(em-tools.io)(x.com)

To learn about engineering management, follow practitioners who share real-world insights on scaling teams, leadership, and organizational design. The most valuable voices are experienced engineering leaders who write, speak, and mentor widely.

🌟 Key Engineering Management Thought Leaders

📚 Broader Management Thinkers Relevant to Engineering Leaders

• Amy Edmondson - Pioneer of psychological safety, critical for high-performing engineering teams.(Thinkers50 Ranking | Top Management Thinkers)
• Linda Hill - Expert on leadership and innovation, with frameworks for managing creative organizations.(Thinkers50 Ranking | Top Management Thinkers)
• Adam Grant - Organizational psychologist, useful for understanding motivation and team dynamics.(Thinkers50 Ranking | Top Management Thinkers)

🔑 How to Use These Voices

1. Books & Blogs - Start with The Manager’s Path (Fournier) and An Elegant Puzzle (Larson).
2. Podcasts & Talks - Follow Hogan, Majors, and Forsgren for practical leadership lessons.
3. LinkedIn & Substack - Orosz’s Pragmatic Engineer newsletter is a goldmine for org design and compensation insights.
4. Academic Research - Edmondson’s work on psychological safety is foundational for building trust in engineering teams.

⚠️ Risks & Considerations

• Beware of one-size-fits-all advice: Engineering management varies by company size, culture, and product type.
• Balance theory with practice: Academic frameworks (Edmondson, Hill) are powerful but must be adapted to your org’s reality.
• Avoid echo chambers: Follow a mix of practitioners (Majors, Larson) and researchers (Forsgren, Edmondson) to get both data-driven and experiential perspectives.

✅ Next Step

If you’re just starting, begin with Camille Fournier’s The Manager’s Path and Will Larson’s An Elegant Puzzle, then subscribe to The Pragmatic Engineer for ongoing insights. This combination gives you structured frameworks, scaling strategies, and current industry practices.

Would you like me to create a tiered learning roadmap (beginner → advanced) for engineering management, with recommended books, blogs, and talks at each stage?