Engineering Manager English Vocabulary: 60 Terms for People & Technical Leadership
Master the English vocabulary every Engineering Manager needs: 1:1s, performance reviews, headcount, OKRs, levelling, roadmaps, and communication with stakeholders.
Engineering Managers write and speak in English constantly — performance reviews, roadmap presentations, stakeholder updates, hiring decisions, and 1:1 coaching. This guide covers the 60 terms that define the EM vocabulary across people management, technical leadership, and cross-functional communication.
People Management
1:1 (One-on-One)
A 1:1 is a regular private meeting between a manager and a direct report — typically weekly, 30–60 minutes. The 1:1 is the primary tool for coaching, feedback, and building trust.
“Our 1:1s follow an agenda: blockers first, long-term career goals, anything I can do to help.”
Direct Report
A direct report is a team member who formally reports to a manager. Engineering Managers typically have 4–8 direct reports.
Skip-Level
A skip-level meeting is a 1:1 between a manager and their manager’s direct reports — skipping one level. Used to gather unfiltered feedback and spot issues early.
RACI Matrix
A RACI matrix defines who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed for each decision or work item. Clarifies ownership and reduces confusion in large teams.
Span of Control
Span of control is the number of people a manager directly manages. Broader spans (7–10+) suit experienced teams; narrower spans (4–6) allow more individual coaching.
Performance Management
Performance Review
A performance review (also: performance appraisal) is a formal evaluation of an employee’s work, typically conducted quarterly or annually. Includes self-assessment, manager assessment, and peer feedback.
PIP (Performance Improvement Plan)
A PIP is a structured plan for an employee who is not meeting expectations. It defines specific goals, timelines, and support. A PIP is a last resort before termination.
“Before putting someone on a PIP, I try to address the issue through feedback and coaching in 1:1s.”
OKR (Objectives and Key Results)
OKRs are a goal-setting framework. An Objective is an ambitious qualitative goal. Key Results are measurable milestones that indicate progress toward the objective.
“Q2 Objective: Significantly improve API reliability. Key Result 1: Reduce P1 incidents from 12 to 3. Key Result 2: Achieve 99.9% uptime.”
KPI (Key Performance Indicator)
A KPI is a metr metric used to evaluate performance against a target. Unlike OKRs (aspirational), KPIs are operational benchmarks.
Underperformer / Low Performer
An underperformer is an employee whose output or behaviour is consistently below expectations for their level. Addressing underperformance early is a key EM responsibility.
High Performer
A high performer consistently exceeds expectations. Retaining high performers — through growth opportunities, compensation, and recognition — is one of the most impactful things an EM can do.
Calibration
Calibration is a group session where managers compare performance ratings across their teams to ensure consistency and fairness. Prevents grade inflation or deflation.
Hiring & Headcount
Headcount
Headcount refers to the number of employees or approved positions on a team. “Headcount approval” means getting budget to hire.
“We were approved for two additional headcount in Q3 — I’m scoping the roles now.”
Requisition (Req)
A requisition (or req) is a formal request to open a new job position. Often requires approval from finance and HR before posting.
JD (Job Description)
A JD is the public posting that describes the role, responsibilities, required skills, and qualifications. Writing a clear JD is the first step in attracting the right candidates.
Levelling / Leveling
Levelling is the process of assigning a seniority level (L3, L4, L5, Senior, Staff, Principal) to an employee or a job opening. Based on scope of impact, autonomy, and depth of expertise.
IC (Individual Contributor)
An IC is an engineer who contributes through their own technical work rather than through team management. The IC track progresses from junior engineer to principal/fellow. Alternative to the management track.
Bar Raiser
A bar raiser (Amazon term, widely adopted) is an interviewer whose job is to assess whether a candidate raises the average bar of the team — they can veto a hire even if the rest of the panel approves.
Offer Letter
The offer letter is a formal document extending a job offer, including salary, equity, start date, and benefits. Sent after verbal offer acceptance.
Engineering Roadmap & Delivery
Roadmap
The engineering roadmap is a prioritised, time-phased plan of what the team will build and deliver. Communicated to stakeholders to set expectations and align on priorities.
Milestone
A milestone is a significant checkpoint in a project — a major deliverable, a launch date, or a go/no-go decision point.
Dependency
A dependency is a piece of work that must be completed (by another team or internally) before a task can proceed. Identifying and managing dependencies early prevents blocked sprints.
Capacity Planning
Capacity planning is estimating how much work a team can deliver in a period, taking into account headcount, on-call rotations, planned leave, and tech debt work.
“After factoring in two engineers on PTO and one on-call week, our effective capacity for Q2 is 70%.”
Technical Debt
Technical debt is accumulated shortcuts, imperfect solutions, and outdated code that increases future development cost. Engineering Managers must balance shipping features with paying down debt.
“We need to dedicate 20% of each sprint to tech debt — otherwise we’ll accumulate so much that new features become blocked.”
Post-Mortem
A post-mortem (or retrospective) is a review after a project, incident, or quarter. Focuses on what went well, what didn’t, and what to change. Good post-mortems are blameless.
Communication & Stakeholder Management
Stakeholder
A stakeholder is anyone with an interest in the team’s work — product managers, executives, customers, or other engineering teams. Managing stakeholder expectations is a core EM skill.
Executive Summary
An executive summary is a brief (1-page or 5-minute) overview of a situation or decision for senior leadership — context, recommendation, and key trade-offs only. No technical details unless asked.
“The executive summary for the roadmap presentation should lead with business impact, not engineering effort.”
Escalation
Escalation is raising an issue to a higher level because it cannot be resolved at the current level — due to resources, authority, or urgency.
“The dependency on the payments team is blocking our launch. I’m escalating to the VP level to get it prioritised.”
Blockers
Blockers are impediments preventing progress. Engineering Managers are responsible for unblocking their teams — removing process barriers, resolving cross-team conflicts, and providing decisions.
Status Update / Status Report
A status update communicates the current state of a project: on-track, at-risk, or blocked. Common format: progress, upcoming work, risks, decisions needed.
RAG Status
RAG stands for Red / Amber / Green. Red: significant problems, at risk of failing. Amber: issues exist but manageable. Green: on track.
“I marked the migration project Amber — we’re on schedule but the rollback plan is not fully tested.”
All-Hands
An all-hands is a team-wide or company-wide meeting where leadership shares updates, strategy, and answers questions. Engineering Managers often present team highlights at department all-hands.
Technical Leadership
Technical Strategy
A technical strategy describes how the engineering team will use technology to achieve business goals — architecture principles, platform choices, build vs. buy decisions.
Architecture Review
An architecture review is a formal evaluation of a technical design before implementation begins. Involves senior engineers and relevant stakeholders.
RFC (Request for Comments)
An RFC is a document proposing a significant technical or process change, circulated for team feedback before a decision is made. Promotes async decision-making.
Standards / Engineering Principles
Engineering principles are team conventions for code style, testing, security, and deployment. Examples: “No code without tests”, “Default to open-source”, “Prefer boring technology”.
Engineering Excellence / DevEx (Developer Experience)
Engineering excellence initiatives improve developer productivity, workflow, and tooling — reducing toil, improving CI/CD pipelines, and reducing lead time for changes.
SLO / SLA
An SLO (Service Level Objective) is an internal target (e.g., 99.9% uptime). An SLA (Service Level Agreement) is a contractual commitment to customers. EMs must understand what their team owns and what is committed externally.
Career Growth
Career Ladder
A career ladder defines the levels, expectations, and promotion criteria for engineers in a company. Engineering managers use it to set expectations and plan promotions fairly.
Promotion
A promotion moves an engineer to the next level. Requires demonstrated sustained performance at the next level, not just current level. The EM builds the promotion case.
Growth Plan
A growth plan is a personalised document outlining an engineer’s current strengths, areas to develop, and specific goals to achieve their next promotion.
Mentoring vs. Coaching
Mentoring is sharing advice and experience from a more senior person. Coaching is asking questions to help someone find their own answers. Both are essential EM skills.
“For a mid-level engineer figuring out their architecture approach, I prefer coaching — ask questions, don’t give the answer.”
Attrition / Retention
Attrition is the rate at which employees leave. Retention is keeping them. High attrition is expensive — the cost of losing an engineer includes recruiting, onboarding, and lost institutional knowledge.
Useful Phrases
In 1:1s:
- “What’s blocking you right now? What can I remove?”
- “Where do you want to be in 18 months? What are we doing to get there?”
- “I have some feedback — is now a good time?”
In performance reviews:
- “You consistently delivered above expectations on reliability — the on-call metrics improved 40% under your ownership.”
- “The area I’d like to see you grow in is written communication — specifically design docs and async decision-making.”
In roadmap presentations:
- “This roadmap balances three bets: reliability (reduce P1 incidents), growth enablement (platform API), and developer productivity (CI pipeline time).”
- “The main risk is the data team dependency in Q3 — I’m working on a mitigation plan.”
Practice
Try the Engineering Manager Vocabulary exercise set — 5 exercises covering people management, delivery, and leadership terminology.
Explore the full Engineering Manager learning path for coaching scenarios, writing exercises, and presentation prep.