Understand the Career Progression
Explore the career progression options for Technical Program Managers and Program Managers. Understand the differences between vertical and horizontal growth, typical role levels, and how mastering management and technical skills opens new opportunities. Learn strategies for transitioning across roles and leveraging relationships for career development.
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It is always easy to think of career advancement as a straight line. However, the career path of a TPM is not as straightforward as roles like software engineers. There are a few reasons for this, but the most significant is that the TPM role is unique, and is newer and not as mature compared to other roles. With that said, here is a look at the typical career path of (T)PM, and what we can expect from different organizations. Vertical career growth requires us to master others because it involves management, whereas horizontal career growth requires us to master ourselves. After all, we need to keep changing hats and learn new skills over time.
Let us take a closer look.
Growing vertically
To grow, we need to leverage our existing skills to climb up the ladder in a straight line. Not mastering our existing skills hampers with additional managerial responsibilities as we progress.
Every organization is somewhat different, but these are the usual levels for the Technical Program Manager role:
- Technical Program Manager: (IC-1 or IC-2)
- Senior Technical Program Manager: (IC-3 ) They require some experience in program management
- Manager,