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What does a Staff
Engineer do?
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Ambiguity
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Relatively new
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GOING STAFF
A “new” path
Tobi(as) Pfeiffer
@PragTob
pragtob.info
Senior Engineer @ Screenverse
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+ +
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Senior Engineer I
Senior Engineer II
Staff Engineer Team Lead
Senior Staff Engineer Engineering Manager
Principal Engineer Director
What’s a Staff Engineer?
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Senior Engineer I
Senior Engineer II
Staff Engineer Team Lead
Senior Staff Engineer Engineering Manager
Principal Engineer Director
A separate path
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So, what does a
Staff Engineer
do?
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TECHNICAL
LEADERSHIP
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INDIVIDUAL
CONTRIBUTOR
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INDIVIDUAL
CONTRIBUTOR
disservice
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*exceptions may apply
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“If you want to
stay coding...”
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“If you want to
stay coding...”
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“If you want to
stay technical...”
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“This doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll write a lot of
code. At this level, your goal is to solve problems
efficiently, and programming will often not be the
best use of your time. (...) let others handle the
programming. Staff engineers often take on
ambiguous, messy, difficult problems and do just
enough work on them to make them manageable
by someone else.”
Tanya Reilly – The Staff Engineer’s Path
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“What matters is that the problems get solved,
not how.”
Tanya Reilly – The Staff Engineer’s Path
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So, what does a
Staff Engineer
do?
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IT DEPENDS
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IT DEPENDS
Your Company
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IT DEPENDS
Your Company
Your Answer
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Archetypes
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Tech Lead
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Architect
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Solver
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Right Hand
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Senior 3
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All of the
above
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DEVELOPERS
TEAM LEAD
ENGINEERING
MANAGER
Director Where are Staffs?
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DEVELOPERS
TEAM LEAD
ENGINEERING
MANAGER
Director “Senior 3”
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DEVELOPERS
TEAM LEAD
ENGINEERING
MANAGER
Director Same level: Staff
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DEVELOPERS
TEAM LEAD
ENGINEERING
MANAGER
Director Same level: Senior Staff
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DEVELOPERS
TEAM LEAD
ENGINEERING
MANAGER
Director Special: Staff
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Being Glue
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A seat at the table
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connector
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Convince People
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Convince People
Push for Change
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Challenging Comms
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Make a map
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Help avoid the local maximum
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Context is King
Context
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80/20 decisions
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Lead & influence,
but without direct
power
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Lead by example
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Lead by example
You ARE a leader
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Lead by example
You ARE a leader
a role model
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AMBIGUITY
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AMBIGUITY
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WHAT DO YOU DO?
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Technical Lead
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Introduction to a domain
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Background Job System
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#flaky-tests
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Elixir Training Camp
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Summarize & document
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Form Alignment
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Form Alignment
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Form Alignment
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Agile Inception Deck
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Split amount
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Beware snacking!
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80% agree – what do you do?
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No decision, is A DECISION
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“We’re fine with the status quo”
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GOING STAFF?
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Senior Engineer I
Senior Engineer II
Staff Engineer Team Lead
Senior Staff Engineer Engineering Manager
Principal Engineer Director
Making your way
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Senior Engineer I
Senior Engineer II
Staff Engineer Team Lead
Senior Staff Engineer Engineering Manager
Principal Engineer Director
Making your way
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Senior Engineer I
Senior Engineer II
Staff Engineer Team Lead
Senior Staff Engineer Engineering Manager
Principal Engineer Director
Making your way
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Senior Engineer I
Senior Engineer II
Staff Engineer Team Lead
Senior Staff Engineer Engineering Manager
Principal Engineer Director
Shift of POV
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Senior Engineer I
Senior Engineer II
Staff Engineer Team Lead
Senior Staff Engineer Engineering Manager
Principal Engineer Director
Making your way
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Senior Engineer I
Senior Engineer II
Staff Engineer Team Lead
Senior Staff Engineer Engineering Manager
Principal Engineer Director
Making your way
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Senior Engineer I
Senior Engineer II
Staff Engineer Team Lead
Senior Staff Engineer Engineering Manager
Principal Engineer Director
Making your way
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Senior Engineer I
Senior Engineer II
Staff Engineer Team Lead
Senior Staff Engineer Engineering Manager
Principal Engineer Director
Making your way
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Senior Engineer I
Senior Engineer II
Staff Engineer Team Lead
Senior Staff Engineer Engineering Manager
Principal Engineer Director
Tasks are similar
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Senior Engineer I
Senior Engineer II
Staff Engineer Team Lead
Senior Staff Engineer Engineering Manager
Principal Engineer Director
Do you enjoy that work?
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IT DEPENDS
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Getting a Staff
promotion is hard
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DEVELOPERS
TEAM LEAD
ENGINEERING
MANAGER
Director
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DEVELOPERS
TEAM LEAD
ENGINEERING
MANAGER
New Team
Director
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DEVELOPERS
TEAM LEAD
ENGINEERING
MANAGER
New Lead
Director
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DEVELOPERS
TEAM LEAD
ENGINEERING
MANAGER
Manager leaves
Director
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DEVELOPERS
TEAM LEAD
ENGINEERING
MANAGER
Manager leaves
Director
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DEVELOPERS
TEAM LEAD
ENGINEERING
MANAGER
Manager leaves
Director
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DEVELOPERS
TEAM LEAD
ENGINEERING
MANAGER
Manager leaves
Director
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DEVELOPERS
TEAM LEAD
ENGINEERING
MANAGER
Manager leaves
Director
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DEVELOPERS
TEAM LEAD
ENGINEERING
MANAGER
Manager leaves
Director
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DEVELOPERS
TEAM LEAD
ENGINEERING
MANAGER
Manager leaves
Director
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#managers = f(employees)
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manager_promo_need =
f(attrition, new hires)
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#staffs = f(???)
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Getting a Staff
promotion is hard
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Getting a Staff
promotion is hard
Expected to already do the work
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Getting a Staff
promotion is hard
Expected to already do the work
“Staff” project
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Getting a Staff
promotion is hard
Expected to already do the work
“Staff” project
Management “detour”
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“We are happy to
announce Rafael’s
promotion to
Principal”
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“Wait, he wasn’t?”
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GETTING A STAFF ROLE
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Tech Leadership
Context
Ensure Delivery
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CHALLENGES
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Everyone is very busy
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Hard to get people on projects
Everyone is very busy
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Everyone is very busy
Hard to get people on projects
Prioritization is hard
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Hard to get people on projects
Prioritization is hard
Alignment is harder
Everyone is very busy
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Executive Summaries
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Executive Summaries
Create dedicated spaces
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Executive Summaries
Create dedicated spaces
Focus on shipping
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GOING STAFF
A “new” path
Tobi(as) Pfeiffer
@PragTob
pragtob.info
Senior Engineer @ Screenverse
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@PragTob
THANKS FOR LISTENING