Ask HN: What's expected from an engineering manager or director now?

I just joined a 30-person AI startup in the Bay Area as Director of Engineering.

Two non-coding founders (CEO and CTO) and a flat team. We have 2 PMs, 20 engineers. Every engineer is senior or staff level. They use Claude Code and AI agents etc quite well.

What is my job in an environment like this? According to the CTO, I'm to improve the velocity and productivity while also balancing quality.

Also, are there any Bay Area meetups or peer groups where engineering leaders are actually talking about this specific setup?

3 points | by agentwrangler 2 hours ago

4 comments

  • dd-sharma 6 minutes ago
    I don't think the role of an engineering leader has changed much. I view AI in different forms as a tool to help us do our job more efficiently and perhaps more effective in doing the grunt work. You still have to do all the things you were doing before - planning, budgeting, ensuring quality and on time execution while keeping the team(s) motivated. One Bay Area peer group of Engineering Leaders that I was involved in is SFELC (San Francisco Engineering Leadership Council?). That time there used to be after work gatherings for leaders to network and discuss issues. I am not sure what's it current status.
  • hfby65 54 minutes ago
    Your job is to devise plan to get rid of need for a CTO by year 1 and CEO by year 3.
  • andsoitis 1 hour ago
    Have you been a director of engineering before?
  • catlover76 2 hours ago
    [dead]