INDUSTRY STATS
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Engineering Program Manager positions are at a 7% growth rate, which is as fast as average. With that said, there are currently 313,200 jobs in the market right now. The total number of jobs is expected to increase by 20,400 to 333,600 in the period of 2020-30.
What’s more, the median annual wage for the Engineering Program Manager jobs was $103,390 in May 2020. The lowest 10% earned less than $69,210, and the highest 10% more than $167,410.
Our conclusion? The Engineering Program Manager job market is wide open for candidates.
Top Engineering Program Manager sections that make the best resume
- Header
- Professional summary
- Experience (with numbers and results)
- Relevant skills
- Education
- Certifications
How to craft the perfect Engineering Program Manager resume experience section
Perfecting the Experience Section: Engineering Program Manager Resume Checklist:
- Be careful with bullet points: use no more than 4-6 per position;
- Mention only positions that are relevant to the job you’re applying for;
- List your experience in chronological or reverse-chronological order;
- Highlight your results by using numbers – e.g. percentage increase/decrease in an important metric that’s followed by - your hard work;
- Use action words whenever possible… but more on that below.
Need examples? We looked through thousands of Engineering Program Manager resumes and gathered some examples of what the ideal experience section looks like. Check them out below!
- Delivered multiple CAD/PDM upgrades to 1500 hardware engineers
- Implemented EPIC, a cloud platform based on Openstack used as the foundation for global collaboration reducing infrastructure buildout times from 8 weeks to 2 days
- Delivered High Performance Compute (HPC) and Infrastructure High Availability (HA) programs for Apple's Special Projects Group (SPG)
- Managed EDB Grant, established a tracking system for forecasting claim amount and timing, and setup process for claiming, documentation for yearly audit. .
- Responsible for program management of printing portfolio and successfully launch four new programs with the collaboration of professionals from worldwide sites such as USA, Ireland and Singapore
- Budgeting and resource planning to keep track of the spending and efficiency of projects
- Conducted program meetings to update management on the progress and facilitate issue meeting to identify root causes and ensure contingencies are in place to resolve issues encountered in projects
- Advice senior management on issues and matters requiring attention with path forwards and risk assessments, and implement their decisions
- Prepared and presented at major program checkpoints to seek approval from Directors and VP to proceed and ensure timely completion of projects
- Worked with technical teams on strategy manufacturing plan for a new product with shortest lead-time to retailers
- Develop and manage project schedule based on requirements with engineering teams and communicate project status to stakeholders.
- Identify risks, track technical roadblocks, develop mitigation strategies, handle critical trade-off decisions for programs, and facilitate conflict resolution.
- Prepare meeting agendas, conduct effective meetings, write meeting minutes, track action items, make presentations, and resolve issues.
- Managed Google cloud platform integration for the western Europe region by collaborating with the cloud, capacity, infrastructure, and security teams, reducing latency & vulnerability by 33%, and managing the platform's scalability & security on the cloud provider.
- Drove a project with the Kafka, messaging, and capacity teams to build Kafka pipelines and Virtual Machines that can handle a traffic volume of up to 2 billion messages (with 20KB message size) per day; analyzing traffic patterns and saving capacity allocation by 50%.
- Worked on improving asset efficiency for infrastructure assets from 78% to 96% and maintain a dashboard as a single source of truth for all assets.
- Implemented the overall asset and configuration management to reduce the vulnerability risks by more than 50% for technology risk management.
- Drive and motivate the cross-functional teams to deliver the products as per the agreed-to requirements and collaborate with other team members.
- Managed a team of 20+ Dev, QA experts (across US, Malaysia, India), as Engineering Program Manager in Dell Business Process Group of NTT
- Led 25+ projects from concept to launch with responsibilities of business requirements documentation, planning and designing the program, establishing project goals, proactively monitoring its progress, resolving issues and initiating appropriate corrective action
- Accountable for providing strategic directions, tactical planning & execution focus of ICS engineering and operations teams programs
- Built and coached Agile teams that improved the time-to-market cycle of Automation and Analytics projects by 40%
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams (Product Manager, Global Process Owner, and Customer Success Managers) spread across 4 geographies to manage monthly upgrades for 40+ cloud customers
- Improved operational practices through automation, resulting in manual effort reduction of ~60% & defect removal efficiency of ~75%
- Closely worked with ~30 customers (internal or external) to thoroughly understand their problem space, articulate their requirements and formulate them into actionable work to build their solutions
- Spearheaded BI portfolio management & mechanics with a unique skill of connecting contemporary technologies with growing business needs scaling up Dell business process group revenue by 27%
- Prevented revenue leak of ~20% by implementing new KPI’s controlling potential billing errors & decommissioning of unutilized cloud services
- Designed and developed powerful predictive dashboards that depicts critical KPIs for key business decisions making of executive leadership
- Extensive experience in leading and operationally managing large scale global transformation projects focusing on operational excellence
- Deep understanding of project management metrics (KPIs), performance management, and best-practice benchmarks
- Managed a team of 20+ Dev, QA experts (across US, Malaysia, India), as Engineering Program Manager in Dell Business Process Group of NTT
- Led 25+ projects from concept to launch with responsibilities of business requirements documentation, planning and designing the program, establishing project goals, proactively monitoring its progress, resolving issues and initiating appropriate corrective action
- Accountable for providing strategic directions, tactical planning & execution focus of ICS business intelligence and analytics projects
- Built and coached Agile teams that improved the time-to-market cycle of Automation and Analytics projects by 40%
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams (Product Manager, Global Process Owner, and Customer Success Managers) spread across 4 geographies to manage monthly upgrades for 40+ cloud customers
- Improved operational practices through automation, resulting in manual effort reduction of ~60% & defect removal efficiency of ~75%
- Closely worked with ~30 customers (internal or external) to thoroughly understand their problem space, articulate their requirements and formulate them into actionable work to build their solutions
- Spearheaded BI portfolio management & mechanics with a unique skill of connecting contemporary technologies with growing business needs scaling up Dell business process group revenue by 27%
- Prevented revenue leak of ~20% by implementing new KPI’s controlling potential billing errors & decommissioning of unutilized cloud services
- Designed and developed powerful analytics dashboards that depicts critical KPIs for key business decisions making of executive leadership
- Extensive experience in leading and operationally managing large scale global transformation projects focusing on operational excellence
- Deep understanding of project management metrics (KPIs), performance management, and best-practice benchmarks
- Ensure all contractual requirements as identified during Contract/Purchase Order review are being implemented and in compliance.
- Create Sales Orders in SAP as per orders received from Customer and as directed by Program Directive.
- Support in development & execution of the schedule for the program and enusre Critical Path management of the program throughout till Contract Closure.ensure
- Track program milestones and manage time fence with Customers.
- Preparation of commercial proposals for Spares, AOGs, changes in existing scope of work etc.
- Ensure program order fluctuations are aligned to the overall organizational plan and projections.
- Conduct Program Management Reviews (PMR) as per the defined processes and also conduct Program Work Transition Gate Review in co-ordination with internal stakeholders at relevant program phases.
- Risk Management for the Project and IMS adherence.
- Co-ordinate with BD team and operations team for preparation of Bid vs Actuals data.Maintain program Recurring Action Items List with Customer and internal team.
- Coordinating Change Review Board, implementing and verifying technical feasibility of engineering change proposals and assigning the responsibilities and disposition authority to CRB members.
- Establishing & monitering engineering baselines, interfacing the activities directly involved in the configuration management processes, controlling configuration items.
- Develop and manage project schedule based on requirements with engineering teams and communicate project status to stakeholders.
- Identify risks, track technical roadblocks, develop mitigation strategies, handle key trade-off decisions for programs, and facilitate conflict resolution.
- Prepare meeting agendas, conduct effective meetings, write meeting minutes, track action items, make presentations, and escalate issues.
- Managed Google cloud platform integration for a region by collaborating with the cloud, capacity, infrastructure, and security teams, reducing latency & vulnerability, and managing scale & security of the platform on the cloud provider.
- Drove the project with the Kafka, messaging, and capacity teams to build Kafka pipelines and Virtual Machines that can handle a traffic volume of up to 2 billion messages (with 20KB message size) per day; analyzing traffic patterns and saving capacity allocation by 50%.
- Worked in improving the asset efficiency for the infrastructure assets to 94% and maintaining a single source of truth dashboard for all the assets that exists in the infrastructure.
- Drive and motivate the cross-functional team to deliver the products as per the agreed-to requirements and collaborate with other internal team members in SRE ( Site reliability Engineering) and Security Operations.
- In 2017 Sr TPM for Public Cloud Program, which is responsible for migrating PayPal from Private Cloud to Public Hybrid Cloud - Google Cloud Platform, AWS & Azure
- In 2016 Sr TPM for the Database Scalability track, which is responsible for providing horizontal scalable database solutions to different PayPal verticals - Consumer, Merchant, Payment, Risk & Credit domain
- In 2016 Accomplished KPIs: 50% of Tier 1 Databases to be Horizontal Scalable & 720 Payments Per Second from 600 Payments Per Sec
PRO TIP
Include quantitative data throughout your Engineering Program Manager resume to impress the hiring manager. Real facts and figures that show off your competency as an audit manager go a long way. Did you reduce the costs of audits? Manage a large team? Boosted efficiency? Show off the real numbers!
Action Verbs for your Engineering Program Manager Resume
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Impressing Recruiters with a Top Engineering Program Manager Resume Skills Section
Checklist for an impressive Engineering Program Manager resume skills section:
- List both hard and technical skills that are important for the role;
- Check what the job description says and add some keywords based on that;
- Focus only on relevant skills;
- Try not to list things such as “communication”; rather, highlight your soft skills in other sections of your Engineering Program Manager resume.
Top Skills for your Engineering Program Manager resume
Matlab
Docker
Microsoft Office
Agile
Solidworks
Maven
Terraform
Attention to details
Communication
Problem-Solving
Organisation
Teamwork
Transparency
Adaptability
PRO TIP
Don’t feel obliged to spend a separate section for your soft skills - you can weave them throughout your job experience or career summary. But, don’t just write empty words - back them with examples.
Recommended reads:
Engineering Program Manager Resume Header: Tips, Red Flags, and Best Practices
CHECKLIST For Your Engineering Program Manager Resume Header
- Your name and surname in a legible and larger resume font
- The job title you’re applying for or your current job title as a subheading to your name
- Link to your portfolio or online profile, such as LinkedIn
- Address (City and State for the US; just your city for rest of the world)
- Email address
- Headshot (required or welcomed in the EU; not required and sometimes frowned upon in the US)
Stick to popular email providers such as Gmail or Outlook. And use these professional formats to create your username:
- first.last@gmail.com
- last.first@gmail.com
- firstlast@gmail.com
- f.last@gmail.com
- first.l@gmail.com
Recommended reads:
PRO TIP
Some companies, states, and countries have non-discrimination policies about what kind of information can be included on your Engineering Program Manager resume. This might include a photo (which is often included in a resume header and might be on personal web pages you link to). You can always email the company’s HR department to ask about their policies before you apply.
Crafting a Strong Summary for Your Engineering Program Manager Resume
Checklist: the perfect Engineering Program Manager resume summary section
- Add a couple of keywords from the job description;
- Mention some of your most valuable skills and characteristics;
- Highlight your top achievements (and add numbers!);
- Use no more than 3-5 sentences to guarantee readability and keep - the hiring manager interested.
Resume Summary Formula:
PRO TIP
Your summary should act as an elevator speech, briefly promoting how you will benefit the employer if hired. Pitch your strengths in the summary and expand on them in your Engineering Program Manager experience section. Give examples like how your work benefited each employer.
Recommended reads:
An Impressive Education Section: Engineering Program Manager Resume
Engineering Program Manager Resume: Education Section Checklist
- Highlight your highest education degree;
- Include the degree subject, year of graduation, and institution name;
- Mention some of the awards you’ve received during your studies;
- List your certifications (incl. the body that’s issued them);
- Entry-level positions: Give preference to courses that are relevant to the position.
Top Certifications for your Engineering Program Manager resume
Program Management Course - Program Manager Essentials
In this Program Management course you will learn the essentials and more to become an effective Program Manager
Program Management Interview Course
Learn how to interview for program manager roles at tech companies
Technical Program Management
This is a course designed for individuals looking to learn about the Technical Program Management (TPM) discipline.
Ace the Program Manager Behavioral Interview
Learn how to beat the behavioral interview for Program Managers!
27 Program Manager Job Interview Techniques:Detailed Answers
Ace that Dream Job Offer !
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PRO TIP
If you hold a certain major and a minor, your majors should be mentioned first.
The Right Format for Your Engineering Program Manager Resume
When it comes to formatting your Engineering Program Manager resume, there are certain things you need to keep in mind. These include your level of expertise, your total years of experience, and the position and company you’re applying for, to name a few.
You can choose between three basic resume formats:
- Reverse-chronological resume format;
- Functional skills-based resume format;
- Combination (or Hybrid) resume format.
The reverse-chronological format is just that – all your experience listed in a reverse-chronological way. It’s great for experienced professionals who have been in the industry for many years and have no career gaps.
The functional skills-based resume, on the other hand, focuses on skills, education, and personality traits, rather than experience. This makes it great for graduates, people with less experience, or bigger career gaps. The idea is to show you’re the perfect match without putting too much emphasis on your lack of relevant experience.
If none of these sound suitable, go for a hybrid (or combination) resume. It’s a mix of experience, skills, and personality traits. It’s also considered modern and innovative because of its non-traditional structure and sections. Here, you can add details about what your typical day looks like or what your life philosophy is. In short, the hybrid resume format shows who you are, both as a professional and as an individual.
More tips on perfecting your resume style and layout:
- Choose a traditional 12p font;
- Make sure your resume margins are no bigger than an inch;
- Go for a one-page template. If you have broad experience and can’t fit your resume on one page, choose a two-page resume template
- Save your resume as PDF to avoid formatting issues and unauthorized editing.
Read this: Ways to make your Engineering Program Manager resume stand out
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PRO TIP
If you feel that you don’t have high chances in a particular company, due to lack of relevant experience, then you can still consider using a creative layout. That might help you get noticed and invited for an interview, as most of the other applicants will have boring resume designs.
More sections worth adding to your Engineering Program Manager resume
If the industry, company, and position you’re applying for allow for that, you could include other sections in your Engineering Program Manager resume. By doing this, you’ll show the recruiter that you’re a real human and not a robot.
Here are some ideas:
The Right Kind of Creativity for your Engineering Program Manager Resume
Several years ago, everyone preferred keeping a safe distance from creative resumes. Today, adding creativity to your CV is considered cool, innovative, and one of the best ways to stand out.
You can add a creative section that describes your typical day or even go for a colorful creative template. No matter what you choose, make sure to keep the position, company, and industry in mind. Otherwise, you risk looking silly.
What Makes a Great Engineering Program Manager Resume: Key Takeaways
- Choose a resume layout that sends the right message across and fits your current career situation;
- Create a resume header that shows your desired job title, and easy to find contact numbers;
- Be specific about your experience, accomplishments and future goals in your summary;
- Feature detailed metrics and specific examples that show the impact you made in your previous roles when describing your experience;
- List soft skills backed by examples;
- Add all of your technical skills and certifications that you have and match the job description;
- Show off a dash of personality in your resume that will demonstrate your culture fit and the right mix of hard and soft skills.
