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 write a Engineering Program Manager resume experience section
Engineering Program Manager Resume’s Job Experience Checklist:
- Use 4-6 bullet points per job title;
- Don’t go further than a decade behind when describing your job history, unless you’re applying for an executive position;
- Combine job responsibilities as well as achievements with numbers in results when you describe your past work;
- Start each sentence with a power verb and avoid overused buzzwords;
- Use either C-A-R or S-T-A-R methodology, when describing your experience.
The work experience samples below come from real Engineering Program Manager resumes that got people hired at top companies. You can use them as an inspiration to build your own resume:
- 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
Recommended reads:
Engineering Program Manager Resume Skills’ Tips & Tricks to Impress Recruiters
Resume Skills Section Checklist:
- Ensure your hard skills section (including technologies) are exactly matching the job description.
- Don’t simply list your soft skills. Apply the “show, don’t tell” principle - let your job achievements speak for themselves.
- Find a way to showcase your skills beyond the skills section.
- Your resume’s skill section is important to ATS systems - so don’t skip it.
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.
Engineering Program Manager Resume Summary Best Practices
Checklist: What to include in your Engineering Program Manager resume summary:
- Years of experience;
- Highlight top 3 skills and proficiencies;
- One big professional accomplishment you’re most proud of, that you can tie with the aforementioned skills;
- Use short, direct sentences - but no more than three - to keep the HRs 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:
Listing Your Education, Certifications and Courses
Resume Education Section Checklist:
- Ensure your hard skills section (including technologies) are exactly matching the job description.
- Don’t simply list your soft skills. Apply the “show, don’t tell” principle - let your job achievements speak for themselves.
- Find a way to showcase your skills beyond the skills section.
- Your resume’s skill section is important to ATS systems - so don’t skip it.
Top Certifications for your Engineering Program Manager resume
Recommended reads:
PRO TIP
If you hold a certain major and a minor, your majors should be mentioned first.
Engineering Program Manager Resume: Additional Writing & Formatting Tips
There are three basic resume formats you can choose from:
- Reverse-chronological resume format;
- Functional resume format;
- Hybrid (or Combination) resume format;
The most optimal format for your particular case will depend on your years of experience, as well as whether you’re switching industries or not.
Reverse chronological resumes are best suited for experienced individuals who are sticking to their industry. The experience section takes a central place, and its bullets contain your responsibilities and achievements, coupled with numbers and results.
Functional resumes are used by less experienced jobseekers or career changers. Note that it’s not a format that recruiters prefer, as most are used to the classic chronological alignment. Instead of a list of job titles, functional resumes focus on your skills, and through what experiences you gained them.
Hybrid resumes are great for both experienced and entry-level candidates, as well as career changers. They combine the best of both worlds - most often in a double column format, where one side of the content is focused on your experience, whereas the other - on your skills, strengths, and proudest moments.
Engineering Program Manager Resume Summary best practices
Here are more resume tips regarding your layout and style:
- Clear and legible 12p resume font size;
- Use 10’’ resume margins - that’s default for a great resume design;
- Use a one-page template resume length if you’ve got less than 10 years of experience; otherwise, opt for a two-page resume;
- Save your resume as PDF before sending it to the recruiter.
To take it a step further, check out how your resume can stand out without leaning too much on the creative side.
Recommended reads:
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.
Other sections to include in your resume
Depending on the type of company (corporation or start-up; innovative or traditional), job seniority level and your location, you may want to include more sections to your Engineering Program Manager resume:
Engineering Program Manager Resume: How to Make Yours More Creative & Stand Out
When you send your resume to a potential employer, chances are it's the fiftieth one they've seen that day. That's why you need to make your Engineering Program Manager resume stand out for the right reasons. That means showing your personality, not just your professional experience. Employers are far more likely to remember a candidate who seems like a genuine person and not a robot. Do this by including your passions (which is also a great place to demonstrate skills on a resume), share your favorite books, or even what your usual day looks like.
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.
