engineering manager recruitment agency and headhunters
your next engineering manager, in good hands.
We combine our data, our tech experts and our AI algorithms to identify the headhunter most relevant to your role, from a first-time engineering manager to someone who manages several teams.
- no setup fees, pay on hire
- guaranteed replacement
they hire their engineering managers with muzzo
how do you hire an engineering manager through a recruitment agency?
An engineering manager runs a team full-time: hiring, one-to-ones, goal-setting, and rarely codes. Muzzo gives your role to the headhunters who hire the most engineering managers: they check a team genuinely built up. Fee of 5 to 30%, paid on hire. Leaves within 3 months: we restart the search free.
the figures
hiring an engineering manager in figures
source: France Travail, BMO 2026 survey, IT project leads and service directors (opens a new window), 2026 data
source: France Travail, BMO 2026 survey, IT project leads and service directors (opens a new window), 2026 data
source: Apec, private-sector managerial pay in 111 job families, 2025 edition, p. 64 (IT development) (opens a new window), 2025 data
how it works
you only pay if you hire
01
you describe the role
Using the form above: the role, your company, the team size. The rest is scoped in your first conversation with the Muzzo team.
02
our data chooses the headhunters
Our AI picks those who have hired the most engineering managers, from more than 2,500 selected headhunters.
03
you meet the best profiles
Approached and qualified by headhunters who are experts in technical management. You choose who you meet.
04
you hire, then you pay
Not before. If your new hire leaves within 3 months, we restart the search at no cost.
they hired with muzzo
Muzzo's strength is the diversity of its recruiters: there is always someone listening to our needs.
With Muzzo, I get the reactivity of a marketplace and the quality of a search firm.
let's talk about your role
Antoine and the Muzzo team help you scope your role and choose the right headhunters. Describe your role in the form: we'll call you back to discuss it.
Antoine GigomasCEO and co-founder of Muzzo
one last question?
With Muzzo, you set the fee, between 5 and 30%, and you only pay it on hire: no deposit, no fixed fees. A first-time engineering manager on a small team and a head of engineering managing several teams don't take the same search. The fee follows that scarcity.
You have a double guarantee. If your new hire leaves within 3 months, for example because the team size or level of autonomy wasn't what was planned, we restart the search at no cost. If we find no replacement within 4 months, we refund 50% of the fees. On average, 94% of Muzzo hires are still in post after 3 months.
headhunters who hire engineering managers are ready to start
A hire signed in under 26 days. You only pay when you hire.
the reality
an engineering manager is judged by the team they leave behind
coding well doesn't mean managing well
Many developers promoted to engineering manager keep their coding reflexes and neglect one-to-ones. The headhunter checks real management experience, not just past technical level.
engineering manager, lead developer: often confused
A lead developer still codes a good part of the time. An engineering manager manages full-time. The headhunter starts from this split before searching.
poor management shows up in turnover
Developers leave, hiring slows down, decisions drag on. The headhunter checks what happened in the previous team before introducing anyone.
the roles
the engineering manager profiles our headhunters go after for you
From a first team of a few developers to several teams under one manager, each role goes to a headhunter who knows this level of responsibility.
engineering manager
They manage a team of developers, run one-to-ones, set goals and take part in hiring. The most requested role in this family.
already hired via muzzo
delivery engineering manager
They keep the delivery pace and organise day-to-day work, working closely with product. More execution-focused than other management profiles.
already hired via muzzo
data or infrastructure engineering manager
They manage a specialist team (data, infrastructure) rather than a generalist development team. See also our data and AI, and infrastructure, cloud and security pages.
already hired via muzzo
head of engineering
They manage several engineering managers and own the technical strategy in front of leadership. For this level, see also our CTO page.
already hired via muzzo
former tech lead turned engineering manager
A common path: they were first a lead developer or tech lead before moving to full-time management. The headhunter checks the move has genuinely happened, not just been wished for.
already hired via muzzo
the method
a headhunter who hires managers of technical teams, not HR generalists
An engineering manager running three developers and a head of engineering running thirty aren't hired the same way. The method starts from the size of the team to manage.
we define the team's size and maturity
How many developers, what level of autonomy, a first management role or an existing team: the brief describes what the engineering manager will take over or build.
a headhunter who hires engineering managers
From more than 2,500 selected headhunters, your role goes to those who hire the most at this level of technical responsibility.
a genuinely managed team, checked with references
The headhunter asks what happened under the profile's responsibility: hires made, departures handled, deliveries kept on track. A manager title on a CV isn't enough.
hiring an engineering manager: what you need to know
why is hiring an engineering manager a role of its own?
An engineering manager runs a team of developers full-time: one-to-ones, goal-setting, hiring, and shielding the team from poorly scoped priorities. They rarely code, unlike a lead developer.
This change of role is hard to assess from a CV. Many good developers fail at this job because they keep coding reflexes rather than investing in management. The headhunter checks for this shift before introducing anyone.
engineering manager, lead developer, CTO: who does what?
A lead developer keeps a significant share of code and makes the technical calls for a team. An engineering manager manages full-time: their product is people, not code. A CTO owns the technical direction of the whole company, beyond a single team.
In a small company, these roles often overlap. State in the brief which one you're really after: for a role that keeps coding, see our lead developer page; for overall technical direction, our CTO page.
should you promote internally or hire an engineering manager externally?
Promoting a senior developer internally has a real advantage: they already know the product and the team. But they have to learn management, sometimes of former peers, often without formal support, which fails more often than people expect.
Hiring externally brings management experience already proven elsewhere, with a fresh perspective on the organisation. The headhunter checks that experience on a concrete case: a team upskilled, hires made, departures handled well.
what team size suits a first-time engineering manager?
There's no fixed rule, but a first management role is rarely taken on a very large team. Many engineering managers start with three to six developers, time enough to learn one-to-ones and hiring.
According to Apec, IT development managers who hold budget responsibility earn a median of €55k, against €50k without it (2025 edition): a gap that reflects the extra load of managing a team, beyond code alone.
how do our headhunters assess an engineering manager?
The headhunter asks for facts rather than a job description: how many people managed, how many hired, how a difficult departure was handled, what delivery pace was kept. These points are checked with references, not on a CV.
For Theodo, Partoo and Legalstart, our headhunters have hired engineering managers. Each role goes to the headhunter who has hired the most at this level of responsibility, not to a generalist tech recruiter.
your questions about hiring an engineering manager
Fairly, yes. According to France Travail's BMO 2026 survey, 45.9% of the 2,330 recruitment projects for IT project leads and service directors are rated hard to fill, against 43.8% across all jobs. This benchmark covers a wider scope than engineering managers alone.
According to Apec, IT development managers who hold budget responsibility earn a median of €55k gross a year, against €50k without it (2025 edition). The gap stays modest: it is mostly the size of the team managed that pushes pay beyond this benchmark.
If you need someone who keeps a significant share of code and makes the technical calls, that's a lead developer. If the role should mainly manage people, hire and run one-to-ones, that's an engineering manager. See also our lead developer page.
Both options exist. Promoting internally keeps product knowledge, but needs real support on management. Hiring externally brings management experience already proven elsewhere. The headhunter helps you choose based on what you can support in-house.
Yes. For the technical direction of the whole company, see our CTO page. For someone managing several engineering managers, the role is often called head of engineering: our headhunters hire at this level too.