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From Senior to Staff : To infinity and beyond !

From Senior to Staff : To infinity and beyond !

Ready to move beyond Senior but not into management ? This session demystifies the path to Staff Engineer. We set out a practical framework for aspiring Staff engineers, and current ones. Learn how to demonstrate Staff-level impact in your role, and how to increase your impact as Staff+.

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Thong Kuah

March 20, 2026
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  1. To in fi nity and beyond ! FROM SENIOR TO

    STAFF THONG KUAH 2026 CODE CAMP WELLINGTON Photo by Ken Cheung: Pexels.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/thong-kuah/
  2. 10% LESS THAN 10% ARE AT STAFF IN A GIVEN

    COMPANY https://www.levels.fyi/2024/download.html
  3. - Setting clear goals - Create a map towards the

    goal - Coaching / mentoring - Delegating - Communicating / Writing - Handling con fl icts - Prioritisation LEADERSHIP SKILLS
  4. Sta$f Engineer Senior Engineer Engineering Manager Software Engineer Junior Engineer

    Sr Sta$f Engineer Director Principal Engineer Sr Engineering Manager
  5. - Write design documents - Bootstrap a new project -

    Investigate a concurrency bug - Interview candidates - Mentor other engineers - Fix a broken main branch EXAMPLE ACTIVITIES
  6. - Di ff erent Organisations - Di ff erent People

    - Di ff erent Situation DIFFERENT NEEDS NASA, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
  7. - Tech Lead - Solver - Architect - Right Hand

    4 ARCHETYPES https://sta ff eng.com/guides/sta ff -archetypes/
  8. - Partner with Manager and team to fi nish a

    project - Most common - about 1 per team TECH LEAD Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
  9. - Deployed to solve a knotty problem - Not as

    common, situation dependent SOLVER Hubble Servicing Mission 4-06, CC BY2.0
  10. - Make decisions on how to evolve the system -

    Rarer - in large companies of 100+ engineers ARCHITECT
  11. - Owns the business problem from all aspects (technical, organisational,

    people) - Rarest - in large organisations far beyond Dunbar’s number (150+) RIGHT HAND
  12. Photo by Bram Van Oost: Unsplash Photo by Jasper Garratt:

    Unsplash Photo by Corentin Largeron: Unsplash
  13. - Job description - Career Ladder - Promotion docs -

    Current Sta ff Engineer pro fi les - Ask your manager WHAT ARE THEIR NEEDS ?
  14. - Cross-team improvements - Org-wide improvements - "Sta ff projects”

    APPRECIABLE IMPACT Photo by GreenForce Sta ffi ng on Unsplash
  15. - You know why you want this role (skills, archetypes,

    etc) - Learn the skills - Achieving goals of appreciable impact - Show that you will succeed as a technical leader RECAP
  16. - The Sta ff Engineer’s Path, by Tanya Reilly -

    Start with WHY, by Simon Sinek Other great books: - Sta ff Engineer: Leadership beyond the management track, by Will Larson - The Manager’s Path, by Camille Fournier - Peopleware, Tom DeMarco & Tim Lister RESOURCES