Technical Manager
On this page
- What's it like to be a Technical Manager?
- How to become a Technical Manager
- Latest Technical Manager jobs
- Top skills and experience for Technical Managers
What's it like to be a Technical Manager?
A Technical Manager heads a company’s technical department, creating its strategy and making key decisions. They manage a business’s technical projects, establishing workflow standards and resource allocation. Their role aligns a company’s computer information systems (CIS) with its business operations, ensuring that deadlines and budgets are followed. They may also be involved in network security and CIS maintenance. Technical managers work in the IT, manufacturing, healthcare, and food industries.
Tasks and duties
- Recruiting, training, and evaluating a company’s IT department.
- Setting the standards and policies for production.
- Procuring resources and supplies for IT operations within a prescribed budget.
- Collaborating with the project manager to streamline workflow.
- Overseeing and optimizing user testing of products.
- Examining finished products to meet industry standards.
- Researching new technologies and industry best practices.
The Technical Manager is a middle management position that bridges the IT department and upper management. It requires around five years of experience in the IT field. Technical managers have the hard skills to have an in-depth and big-picture understanding of how a project is executed and the interpersonal skills to delegate and motivate the IT team to perform at their best. Communication and presentation skills will aid technical managers in explaining jargon in understandable terms to non-tech management.
How to become a Technical Manager
To work as a Technical Manager, you’ll usually be required to hold a bachelor degree in a relevant field.
Graduate with a bachelor degree in Information Technology, Information Systems, Computer Science, or another related field.
Complete an internship in the IT department of a recognized company, tech startup, or IT consultancy.
Get an entry-level job such as Systems Analyst or Technical Support Representative.
Gain five years of experience, moving higher to positions such as Project Manager or Senior Engineer until promoted to Technical Manager.
Consider postgraduate education, such as a Master of Science in Computer Science or MBA in Information Systems.
