In this Lead Dev presentation, Editor-in-Chief Scott shares insights from their latest Engineering Leadership Report, surveying 600 engineering leaders. The findings highlight a profound squeeze on middle management—a trend dubbed “The Great Flattening.” Driven by post-pandemic economic adjustments and supercharged by advancements in AI tools, organizations are dismantling traditional managerial pyramids in favor of leaner, more hands-on leadership structures.

The Collapse of Middle Management

Survey data reveals a stark year-on-year increase in cuts targeted directly at middle management, rising from 43% to 65%. High-profile tech CEOs are openly shifting away from “pure managers” to reduce coordination overhead and speed up decision-making. Traditional multi-layer hierarchies (VPs, directors, engineering managers) are increasingly compressed into single “lead” layers responsible for coordination, talent coaching, and direct technical execution.

Expanding Scope, Hours, and the Player-Coach Model

For engineering managers who remain, expectations have intensified dramatically:

• Broader Scope: 63% of surveyed managers reported an expanded scope of responsibility over the past 12 months, with 29% managing more direct reports.
• Longer Hours: Increased workload is significantly hitting managers of managers, first-line managers, and Staff+ engineers.
• Return to Technical Work: 36% of managers are doing more hands-on coding than a year ago, accelerated by recent leaps in AI developer tooling. Companies are increasingly demanding high technical contribution even for senior leadership roles, such as Director of Engineering positions requiring up to 75% coding.

The Shift Back to IC Roles and Emerging Career Paths

Faced with heavier workloads and a requirement to stay technically sharp, one in three engineering managers is now actively considering returning to an Individual Contributor (IC) path—a 15 percentage point increase from the previous year. This structural disruption is creating a new hybrid career archetype: the “player-manager” or “IC Executive,” combining strategic business acumen with active, hands-on development capability.

Mentoring question

As engineering organizations increasingly prioritize ‘player-managers’ and technical leadership, how are you balancing your strategic management responsibilities with maintaining hands-on technical proficiency?

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=MPVmV-6O5to&is=yFVnaZ62oIjZb-aC