In my 30 year experience across 10 jobs, a line level manager can’t be “good”, the most they can do is “not be bad”. They are completely useless in helping their reports get raises and promotions and they rarely control budgets.

For the 2 jobs I had before going into consulting (working full time for consulting companies) where I was a strategic hire, one of my requirements were that I reported to the director/CTO and not the line level managers. Someone who could actually sign off on a decision.

In consulting it doesn’t matter. The client drives the decisions.