Going Staff - Keynote edition

What’s up with becoming a Staff Engineer? What does it mean? Is it just for people who want to keep coding? How do you become a Staff Engineer and what does the work entail? What if I told you that being a Staff engineer actually required a lot of communication and collaboration skills?

In this talk, let’s answer all those questions! To aid in our journey, we’ll also take a look at what it means to be “glue”, help you navigate organizations to find value and succeed at being a Staff engineer!

Transcript

1. What does a Staff Engineer do?
3. Ambiguity
4. Relatively new
5. GOING STAFF A “new” path Tobi(as) Pfeiffer @PragTob pragtob.info Senior Engineer @ Screenverse
6. + +
7. Senior Engineer I Senior Engineer II Staff Engineer Team Lead Senior Staff Engineer Engineering Manager Principal Engineer Director What’s a Staff Engineer?
8. Senior Engineer I Senior Engineer II Staff Engineer Team Lead Senior Staff Engineer Engineering Manager Principal Engineer Director A separate path
9. So, what does a Staff Engineer do?
10. TECHNICAL LEADERSHIP
11. INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTOR
12. INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTOR disservice
14. *exceptions may apply
15. “If you want to stay coding...”
16. “If you want to stay coding...”
17. “If you want to stay technical...”
18. “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
19. “What matters is that the problems get solved, not how.” Tanya Reilly – The Staff Engineer’s Path
20. So, what does a Staff Engineer do?
21. IT DEPENDS
22. IT DEPENDS Your Company
23. IT DEPENDS Your Company Your Answer
24. Archetypes
25. Tech Lead
26. Architect
27. Solver
28. Right Hand
29. Senior 3
30. All of the above
31. DEVELOPERS TEAM LEAD ENGINEERING MANAGER Director Where are Staffs?
32. DEVELOPERS TEAM LEAD ENGINEERING MANAGER Director “Senior 3”
33. DEVELOPERS TEAM LEAD ENGINEERING MANAGER Director Same level: Staff
34. DEVELOPERS TEAM LEAD ENGINEERING MANAGER Director Same level: Senior Staff
35. DEVELOPERS TEAM LEAD ENGINEERING MANAGER Director Special: Staff
36. Being Glue
37. A seat at the table
38. connector
39. Convince People
40. Convince People Push for Change
41. Challenging Comms
42. Make a map
43. Help avoid the local maximum
44. Context is King Context
45. 80/20 decisions
46. Lead & influence, but without direct power
47. Lead by example
48. Lead by example You ARE a leader
49. Lead by example You ARE a leader a role model
50. AMBIGUITY
51. AMBIGUITY
52. WHAT DO YOU DO?
53. Technical Lead
54. Introduction to a domain
55. Background Job System
56. #flaky-tests
57. Elixir Training Camp
58. Summarize & document
59. Form Alignment
60. Form Alignment
61. Form Alignment
62. Agile Inception Deck
63. Split amount
64. Beware snacking!
65. 80% agree – what do you do?
66. No decision, is A DECISION
67. “We’re fine with the status quo”
68. GOING STAFF?
69. Senior Engineer I Senior Engineer II Staff Engineer Team Lead Senior Staff Engineer Engineering Manager Principal Engineer Director Making your way
70. Senior Engineer I Senior Engineer II Staff Engineer Team Lead Senior Staff Engineer Engineering Manager Principal Engineer Director Making your way
71. Senior Engineer I Senior Engineer II Staff Engineer Team Lead Senior Staff Engineer Engineering Manager Principal Engineer Director Making your way
72. Senior Engineer I Senior Engineer II Staff Engineer Team Lead Senior Staff Engineer Engineering Manager Principal Engineer Director Shift of POV
73. Senior Engineer I Senior Engineer II Staff Engineer Team Lead Senior Staff Engineer Engineering Manager Principal Engineer Director Making your way
74. Senior Engineer I Senior Engineer II Staff Engineer Team Lead Senior Staff Engineer Engineering Manager Principal Engineer Director Making your way
75. Senior Engineer I Senior Engineer II Staff Engineer Team Lead Senior Staff Engineer Engineering Manager Principal Engineer Director Making your way
76. Senior Engineer I Senior Engineer II Staff Engineer Team Lead Senior Staff Engineer Engineering Manager Principal Engineer Director Making your way
77. Senior Engineer I Senior Engineer II Staff Engineer Team Lead Senior Staff Engineer Engineering Manager Principal Engineer Director Tasks are similar
78. Senior Engineer I Senior Engineer II Staff Engineer Team Lead Senior Staff Engineer Engineering Manager Principal Engineer Director Do you enjoy that work?
79. IT DEPENDS
80. Getting a Staff promotion is hard
81. DEVELOPERS TEAM LEAD ENGINEERING MANAGER Director
82. DEVELOPERS TEAM LEAD ENGINEERING MANAGER New Team Director
83. DEVELOPERS TEAM LEAD ENGINEERING MANAGER New Lead Director
84. DEVELOPERS TEAM LEAD ENGINEERING MANAGER Manager leaves Director
85. DEVELOPERS TEAM LEAD ENGINEERING MANAGER Manager leaves Director
86. DEVELOPERS TEAM LEAD ENGINEERING MANAGER Manager leaves Director
87. DEVELOPERS TEAM LEAD ENGINEERING MANAGER Manager leaves Director
88. DEVELOPERS TEAM LEAD ENGINEERING MANAGER Manager leaves Director
89. DEVELOPERS TEAM LEAD ENGINEERING MANAGER Manager leaves Director
90. DEVELOPERS TEAM LEAD ENGINEERING MANAGER Manager leaves Director
91. #managers = f(employees)
92. manager_promo_need = f(attrition, new hires)
93. #staffs = f(???)
94. Getting a Staff promotion is hard
95. Getting a Staff promotion is hard Expected to already do the work
96. Getting a Staff promotion is hard Expected to already do the work “Staff” project
97. Getting a Staff promotion is hard Expected to already do the work “Staff” project Management “detour”
98. “We are happy to announce Rafael’s promotion to Principal”
100. “Wait, he wasn’t?”
103. GETTING A STAFF ROLE
104. Tech Leadership Context Ensure Delivery
105. CHALLENGES
106. Everyone is very busy
107. Hard to get people on projects Everyone is very busy
108. Everyone is very busy Hard to get people on projects Prioritization is hard
109. Hard to get people on projects Prioritization is hard Alignment is harder Everyone is very busy
110. Executive Summaries
111. Executive Summaries Create dedicated spaces
112. Executive Summaries Create dedicated spaces Focus on shipping
114. GOING STAFF A “new” path Tobi(as) Pfeiffer @PragTob pragtob.info Senior Engineer @ Screenverse
115. @PragTob THANKS FOR LISTENING