Staff Engineer: Leadership Beyond the Management Track

Currently working through this excellent guide on what it means to be a Staff+ engineer. Larson interviews dozens of Staff+ engineers and distills their experiences into actionable advice.

Notes So Far

What is a Staff Engineer?

Staff engineers operate at a higher level of abstraction than senior engineers. They:

• Work on problems that span multiple teams
• Define technical strategy
• Mentor and grow other engineers
• Create space for others to succeed

Archetypes

Larson identifies four Staff engineer archetypes:

1. Tech Lead - Guides approach and execution of a single team
2. Architect - Responsible for technical direction within a specific area
3. Solver - Digs into complex problems that others struggle with
4. Right Hand - Operates as a senior organizational leader’s right hand

Getting to Staff

The path isn’t always clear, but common patterns include:

• Consistent delivery of business impact
• Building trust with leadership
• Developing a specialty
• Being in the right place at the right time

Thoughts

The distinction between being a good senior engineer and operating at Staff level is subtle but important. It’s less about individual technical skill and more about multiplying the effectiveness of those around you.