Engineering Manager - not so good - Engineering Manager Boeing Employee Review

2.0
Mar 18, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good benefits, Opportunities (sometimes), International Company with respected brand name, travel, reasonably good work/life balance for many employees. As a new and relatively younger engineering manager I am quickly getting good work experience and exposure to the broader business. New managers are thrown into the fire and there is no hand holding, which comes with pros and cons. In my experience the first lines make the majority of important operational business decisions and are solely responsible for trying to set culture and engagement within the company.

Cons

Bureaucratic, unmotivated union employee force, low market pay for managers, slow, uncoordinated, too much engineering outsourcing. Boeing suffers from an aging workforce propelled by the union which protects the senior population at the expense of the company and the younger workforce. Unfortunately this produces a number of tenured long time employees that no longer have motivation, lack engagement, and skew the compensation profiles which ultimately leads to a culture that cannot compete with modern companies. There may well be many opportunities for younger employees in the next decade but Boeing has to figure out how to keep them around in a competitive employment market while also navigating through ongoing cost initiatives (layoffs, reduction in raises/benefits, ...) that disproportionately affect the younger population. The company is too bureaucratic which directly affects the long term ability to compete. Inordinate policies around supplier manager, finance, and most everything else create an enormous support organization that costs the company and sucks the life out of everyday work for those that are actually contributing to creating airplanes. I also think Boeing struggles with coordination among it many different business units and organizations. One arm seemingly does not know what the other is doing, as though he company is too big for it's own good. Contributing to this are the number of outdated critical business tools and seemingly refusal to modernize. Having been an engineer and now an engineering manager, I can say Boeing has problems with how it values it's first level managers. The position has financial disincentive (up to 5% more pay at the expense of loss of overtime and loss of Union incentives) while being a considerably more stressful, difficult, and unrecognized position with a worsening work/life balance. Boeing's engineering managers are considerably underpaid compared to market rate relative to Boeing's engineers, as demonstrated by the fact that Boeing recognizes a level 4 engineer equivalent to an engineering manager. Most engineers do not want to be an engineering manager for good reason, and Boeing should realize this is directly affecting the type of managers they will be able to get and keep.

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5.0
Apr 13, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

great wlb, great 401k perks

Cons

not many growth opportunities at the company

3.0
May 27, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Easy going, nice benefits, free further education (masters/PhD). Great for an engineer starting out who needs to dip their feet in the pool of engineering for a few years and to get a great 401(k) match at the start of your career (compounding growth). Great for late stage career due to the benefits and solid enough pay in a low cost of living area

Cons

pay-scale lagging, no emphasis on learning new things, no punishment for people who are bad at their job. After working for 4 years, I feel like I should have jumped ship after 2. I haven't been given meaningful work that really challenges me in a while. Now I feel pigeonholed into staying because I have enough years of experience that I really should be considered senior, but I haven't been given work that reflects what I senior engineer should be capable of. Now I'm trying to jump ship before it's really too late. If I stay here another 2 years I think I will be genuinely unemployable and will have to stay at this company forever.

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