Going Staff - Keynote @ CodeBEAM EU 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!

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 leavesDirector

85. DEVELOPERS
TEAM LEAD
ENGINEERING
MANAGER
Manager leavesDirector

86. DEVELOPERS
TEAM LEAD
ENGINEERING
MANAGER
Manager leavesDirector

87. DEVELOPERS
TEAM LEAD
ENGINEERING
MANAGER
Manager leavesDirector

88. DEVELOPERS
TEAM LEAD
ENGINEERING
MANAGER
Manager leavesDirector

89. DEVELOPERS
TEAM LEAD
ENGINEERING
MANAGER
Manager leavesDirector

90. DEVELOPERS
TEAM LEAD
ENGINEERING
MANAGER
Manager leavesDirector

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