The Staff Engineer's Path

When two or more teams need to work closely together, their projects can fall into chaos if they don’t have the same clear view of where they’re trying to get to. The lack of alignment can lead to power struggles and wasted effort as both sides try to “win” the technical direction.

Organizations differ on what attributes they expect of their most senior engineers and what kind of work those engineers should do. Although most agree that, as Silvia Botros has written, the top of the technical track is not just “more-senior seniors,” we don’t have a shared understanding of what it is.

If you know whether your workplace is oriented around power, rules, or mission, you’ll find it easier to get things done. A feeling for how much people will share information, cooperate, take the time to help, and get behind new ideas will keep you safer and less frustrated as you cross the terrain. If you know you’re in a bureaucracy, you’ll have

If your organization has published a statement of values or principles, that can help you see what the leaders care most about. But these values are aspirational: the real values of the company are reflected in what actually happens every day.

When the path is undefined and confusing, sometimes you need to get the group to agree on a plan and create the missing map. This map often comes in the form of a technical vision, describing a future state you want to get to, or a technical strategy, outlining how you plan to navigate challenges and achieve specific goals.

You need to measure success from your users’ point of view.

Staff engineering has plenty of room for introverts—and

If you don’t understand how decisions are made in your organization or company, you’ll find yourself unable to anticipate or influence them.

A technique I learned from my friend Cian Synnott is to write out my understanding of my job and share it with my manager. It can feel a little intimidating to answer the question “What do you do here?” What if other people think what you do is useless, or think you don’t do it well? But writing it out removes the ambiguity, and you’ll find out ear