Question an engineer's revised drawings
With an engineer, review revised drawings and ask what problem they fix before approving the team's plan.
Career profile
Architecture and Engineering Manager
Architectural and engineering managers lead engineers or architects and choose which projects and designs proceed.
When a test result delays the schedule, you help decide what changes and explain the cost to the people funding the project.
A day in the life
Shuffle tasks around a delay
Look over the project schedule, move people onto tasks that aren't blocked, and reschedule the next review.
Make the case for equipment
Compare the equipment's cost against the project budget, then argue to senior managers for buying it.
Steer the next round of testing
In materials development, review failed-part results with technicians and engineers and guide what they investigate and record next.
Quick facts
Bachelor’s + experience
United States · 2025–2035
$171,270/year
United States · May 2025
5.5% growth
United States · 2025–2035
Quick orientation
Preparation, pay & outlook
Preparation
Bachelor’s + experienceTypically a bachelor’s degree and five or more years of related work.
Pay
$171,270/yearNational median; equivalent to $82.34 an hour.
Outlook
5.5% growthProjected employment growth from 2025 to 2035.
Fit, tradeoffs & changing tools
You might like this if…
- You enjoy explaining a technical choice to someone with different priorities.
- You like helping other people improve their work.
- You can choose a direction when several people want different things.
Things to weigh
- Deadlines and budget pressure can push the workweek beyond 40 hours.
- Staff questions and difficult conversations compete with time spent designing things yourself.
Where AI may help
On building projects, software can combine digital models and flag overlapping parts, such as a pipe passing through a wall without an opening.
What people still lead
People decide which flags need action. You bring the relevant designers together and settle who will change what.
What we can’t predict yet
How much design review can become automatic remains uncertain: a model may reveal a collision without capturing every requirement that makes a solution workable.
Pay in context
Earnings
These wages describe managers who usually already have years of technical experience.
The middle and the spread
Median pay was $171,270 a year, equivalent to $82.34 an hour. The 10th and 90th percentiles were $120,810 and $262,760. These are wage positions, not starting and senior salaries.
Workplace type matters
Annual median pay was $211,450 in scientific research and development services and $169,690 in manufacturing. Moving industries does not guarantee that difference.
Openings include replacements
About 14,900 openings are projected each year, on average, alongside 5.5% employment growth. Many openings replace people who retire or leave the occupation.
Getting started
Build from engineering
- What the route involves
- Earn an engineering bachelor’s degree, then develop designs, solve technical problems and take on team leadership.
- What it can lead to
- That experience prepares you to compete for engineering management roles.
Build from architecture
- What the route involves
- Study architecture, complete the licensing route, and build experience delivering projects and leading colleagues.
- What it can lead to
- Project experience can lead to managing architectural teams.
- What to check
- To become an architect, meet your licensing board’s education and experience requirements, pass the Architect Registration Examination, and obtain the license. Check the board’s exam eligibility rules; passing the exam alone is not licensure.
Build experience as an engineer or architect before moving into management.
After entry
Career paths
This starts where the entry routes leave off: early work, growing capability, and advancement or specialization.
Get established
Set clear responsibilities and review dates so your first team knows when to bring problems to you.
Develop your judgment
In manufacturing, learn to connect design decisions with problems on the production floor, and help engineers resolve them together.
Lead across programs
A possible next step is senior engineering management, setting technical practices and training across several programs rather than one team.
Where you can work
Building-design offices
Separate architectural and engineering models must fit together before construction. Shared model reviews bring you into decisions that cross design specialties.
- Office
- Indoors
Aerospace manufacturing
You work between design engineers and production teams. A part must be buildable as well as meet its design requirements, so factory problems can change your priorities.
- Indoors
- Safety-sensitive
Try it
See whether the job clicks before you commit to the path.
Plan a cardboard-bridge project for an imaginary four-person team. Assign design, building and testing work, with a deadline and small materials budget. Then imagine the first test fails: revise the plan and explain your decision. Notice whether coordinating the response interests you as much as designing the bridge.
Sources
- O*NET OnLine. Architectural and Engineering Managers — 11-9041.00. Accessed 2026-10-03.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Architectural and Engineering Managers. Accessed 2026-10-03.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational projections and worker characteristics. Accessed 2026-10-03.
- O*NET OnLine / U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. National Wages: Architectural and Engineering Managers. Accessed 2026-10-03.
- Autodesk. Model Coordination. Accessed 2026-10-03.
- National Council of Architectural Registration Boards. How to Earn Your Architecture License. Accessed 2026-10-03.
- Boeing. Engineering Manager (K Level), St. Louis. Accessed 2026-10-03.
- Boeing / Millennium Space Systems. Manufacturing Engineering Manager — Structures, Propulsion, & Mechanisms. Accessed 2026-10-03.
- Boeing. Senior Multi-Skill Engineering Manager. Accessed 2026-10-03.