Role & Relation with the team

The technical manager plays a crucial role in maintaining the team balance. It is not expected from him/her to know everything but to be motivated to learn and lead the technical development from a logistical and communication perspective. If the team also has a system engineer, the technical manager (TM) will closely collaborate with the system engineer to ensure that there is a proper overview of the project. The system engineer should be in charge of developing visual tools and the technical manager can be of great help in ensuring that the technical staff makes use of these tools. Additionally, the system engineer will be of great help in the development of planning and the identification of specific challenges.

The TM interacts with the technical team regularly. The TM is responsible for organising TTMs (Technical Team Meetings), a regular meeting (up to the team to choose how often this meeting takes place; it is an adviced to have one at least once a week) that includes all team leads and the TM. During TTMs, the team leads should give an update on the progress and challenges the colleagues they represent have been working on. Other team leads should be encouraged to listen and propose new ideas/solutions to troubleshoot challenges. The discussion might not always include the TM. However, the TM is expected to listen and chair the meetings. Additionally, he/she can intervene in case an issue requires external contact or if there are matters that require more discussion/better communication within the team. Based on the experiences we had in the year 2025-2026, we would advise organising regular meetings with members from all subteams involved in a specific subsystem (for example, a meeting for the engineers working on the robotic arm every two weeks). Additionally, the technical manager joins the management meetings and offers a perspective from a technical aspects to the management subteam.

The technical manager is also encouraged to establish regular contact with members who are not leads or management. These social interactions can be formally planned or simply casual within the office. These interactions will make it easier for engineers to reach out to the TM, as the TM will look and feel more accessible.