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+.

Transcript

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. Photo by Eunice De Guzman on Unsplash SHOW OF HANDS
3. 10% LESS THAN 10% ARE AT STAFF IN A GIVEN COMPANY https://www.levels.fyi/2024/download.html
4. STAFF ENGINEERING IS ABOUT LEADERSHIP, AND TECHNICAL SKILLS
6. WHAT IS LEADERSHIP ?
7. PEOPLE & GOALS Photo by Bisesh Gurung: Pexels.com
8. GUIDE => COMMON GOAL
9. 99% GUIDANCE FOR EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP
10. SITUATIONAL
11. - Setting clear goals - Create a map towards the goal - Coaching / mentoring - Delegating - Communicating / Writing - Handling con fl icts - Prioritisation LEADERSHIP SKILLS
12. Technical skills Leadership skills Senior Engineer Junior Intermediate Sta9f
13. WHAT IS STAFF ENGINEERING ?
14. Sta$f Engineer Senior Engineer Engineering Manager Software Engineer Junior Engineer Sr Sta$f Engineer Director Principal Engineer Sr Engineering Manager
15. https://about.google/brand-resource-center/products-and-services/geo-guidelines/#google-earth This Google map includes data from: Airbus, CNES / Airbus, Maxar Technologies.Imagery from the dates: 4/27/2023–newer
16. - Scale - Specialisation WHY STAFF ENGINEERS EXIST JWST Full-scale model at NASA Goddard, CC BY2.0
17. - Write design documents - Bootstrap a new project - Investigate a concurrency bug - Interview candidates - Mentor other engineers - Fix a broken main branch EXAMPLE ACTIVITIES
18. - Di ff erent Organisations - Di ff erent People - Di ff erent Situation DIFFERENT NEEDS NASA, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
19. - Tech Lead - Solver - Architect - Right Hand 4 ARCHETYPES https://sta ff eng.com/guides/sta ff -archetypes/
20. - Partner with Manager and team to fi nish a project - Most common - about 1 per team TECH LEAD Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
21. - Deployed to solve a knotty problem - Not as common, situation dependent SOLVER Hubble Servicing Mission 4-06, CC BY2.0
22. - Make decisions on how to evolve the system - Rarer - in large companies of 100+ engineers ARCHITECT
23. - Owns the business problem from all aspects (technical, organisational, people) - Rarest - in large organisations far beyond Dunbar’s number (150+) RIGHT HAND
24. - Preferences - Can be learnt - All leadership roles WHICH ONE IS YOU ?
25. HOW TO GET THERE
26. - Your guiding light - Consider downsides also YOUR "WHY" Photo by Wonderland on Unsplash
27. Photo by Bram Van Oost: Unsplash Photo by Jasper Garratt: Unsplash Photo by Corentin Largeron: Unsplash
28. GET TO SENIOR, FIRST
29. - Job description - Career Ladder - Promotion docs - Current Sta ff Engineer pro fi les - Ask your manager WHAT ARE THEIR NEEDS ?
30. DEMONSTRATING IMPACT
31. - Cross-team improvements - Org-wide improvements - "Sta ff projects” APPRECIABLE IMPACT Photo by GreenForce Sta ffi ng on Unsplash
32. I LED / INITIATED / COMPLETED / COLLABORATED....
33. TECHNICAL LEADER
34. - 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
35. - 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
36. “THERE ARE NO WRONG TURNS, ONLY UNEXPECTED PATHS” MARK NEPO, THE BOOK OF AWAKENING