The Staff Engineer is deeply technical and will keep doing much of what made them successful as a Senior Software Engineer: demonstrating ownership of code quality, leading projects, and writing software. However, those core tasks will start to move to the auxiliary, and instead be replaced with setting technical direction, sponsoring initiatives, injecting important technical context when necessary, and exploring uncharted waters.
Staff work is when timeframes start to extend, and the constant write, test, ship, repeat feedback loop is replaced with long-term goals that may take weeks or months to materialize. Many engineers never make it to Staff level, and by taking on the role it officially pushes an engineer out of a pure individual contributor role to a role of technical leadership.
Role Outcomes
- Close the gap between current and target technical quality standards
- Lead the successful delivery of complex cross-functional projects
- Independently identify and champion work which generates the most value to the organization
- Translate individual technical decisions into opinionated guiding principles
- Contribute to a great organization through sponsorship
Role Traits
- System thinker - Our product will continue to grow with new features and abstractions, and our most senior engineers need to be able to envision the growing system and make sure we make the right technical decisions along the way.
- Amazing communicator – Can read between the lines in what people say and write, and can simplify, express, and teach complicated subjects through the use of appropriate synthesis/brevity, precise semantics, structured and logical reasoning, and narrative.
- Autonomous - Can intuitively prioritize work, holds themselves accountable, and requires little to no direct supervision to generate high value work.
- Foresight - This role will require the ability to see around corners to identify and navigate broad, ambiguous problems.
- Skilled collaborator - Be easy to involve, don’t force agreement e.g. active listening. Should be able to work cross functionally with folks more and less senior
Haven
