How to source and screen Engineering Manager candidates

Title variants to search

Cover all 4 when searching boards and your own database.

• Engineering Manager
• Software Engineering Manager
• Development Manager
• Manager, Software Development

Starter Boolean search string

Paste into a job board or resume database, then add location and work authorization.

("Engineering Manager" OR "Software Engineering Manager" OR "Development Manager" OR "Manager, Software Development") AND ("Managing and growing software engineers" AND "Delivery and planning" AND "Hiring and performance management")

Google resume X-ray string

Replace City and ST with your target location.

(intitle:resume OR intitle:cv) ("Engineering Manager" OR "Software Engineering Manager" OR "Development Manager" OR "Manager, Software Development") ("Managing and growing software engineers" OR "Delivery and planning" OR "Hiring and performance management") ("City" OR "ST") -job -jobs -sample -template -hiring

LinkedIn Recruiter variant

Operators in uppercase; the NOT group removes junior and recruiter profiles.

("Engineering Manager" OR "Software Engineering Manager" OR "Development Manager" OR "Manager, Software Development") AND ("Managing and growing software engineers" OR "Delivery and planning" OR "Hiring and performance management") AND NOT (intern OR trainee OR recruiter)

Demand in the job feed

MatchWire's job feed (snapshot, November 1, 2026) holds 230 postings under these titles, and Full-time is the most common job type (90.9% of postings that state one). States with the most, counting only state and title pairs with at least 5 postings:

• California: 59 postings
• New York: 23 postings
• Texas: 13 postings
• Washington: 9 postings
• Illinois: 5 postings

Must-have skills

For Engineering manager roles, a candidate who cannot speak to these is rarely a fit.

• Managing and growing software engineers
• Delivery and planning
• Hiring and performance management
• Technical judgement across the stack
• Communication with product and executives

Nice-to-have skills

Rank candidates who already meet the must-haves.

• Agile coaching
• Budgeting
• Hands-on coding history
• Cloud or data platforms
• Cross-team leadership

Screening questions

Hands-on experience versus keyword matching.

• How many engineers did you manage and how did the team change?
• How do you handle an underperforming engineer?
• How do you stay close enough to the code to judge a design?

Before you run these strings

Test each string on a small result set first. Operator rules are in the Boolean search cheat sheet and the Dice Boolean search guide.

Where automation helps

MatchWire matches each new Engineering manager posting to your consultants by rule and drafts a tailored resume for the matches you queue. Try the free match test.

Frequently asked questions