>An engineering manager is not an engineer at all //
I thought the "ing" made the role specifically one for engineers.
The idea being that engineers could continue to work doing engineering whilst moving into management. An engineering manager would be a senior engineer who also manages people: particularly those people's engineering activity.
But, I don't have much experience of this, so I might be wrong.
Generally not the case (and where it is, it’s probably a title or an employee being abused).
Engineering is being used here as a categorical rather than descriptive adjective. This person is a manager; the category of people they’re managing is engineering.
If they were happy and you described them as a smiling engineering manager, smiling is descriptive (and used as you were surmising) and engineering is categorical.
I thought the "ing" made the role specifically one for engineers.
The idea being that engineers could continue to work doing engineering whilst moving into management. An engineering manager would be a senior engineer who also manages people: particularly those people's engineering activity.
But, I don't have much experience of this, so I might be wrong.