Gil mentioned that we need more people who are different. Ways to do this are talking to people in different disciplines, and practising explaining technical stuff to those who aren’t technical.Īs a technical leader, you need to be able to create psychological safety for people to work together. Gil suggested spending time building your network. Networking is important because people will come to you with questions you can’t have all the answers to. This will enable to influence the longer term planning across many teams, and align everyone on a common goal. Technical strategy is something that you will need to get to grips with so you can not only influence it, but also explain it to your teams. It’s also an underrated skill that often isn’t stated in career development plans, but it’s critical to succeed as a staff plus engineer. Roles will of course vary across organizations, Gil said, and there are big differences in career paths.Ĭommunication and listening is a foundation skill, Gil mentioned. The solver role can be temporary for handling a crisis, but it can be longer if needed. Staff plus roles have different flavors, like tech lead, architect, solver, or right hand. The benefit will be that you can have more impact on the organization, Gil mentioned. So they set out to document it in blogs on StaffEng, interviewing engineers and publishing books on the topic such as ' The Staff Engineer’s Path' by Tanya Reilly and ' Staff Engineer: leadership beyond the management track' by Will Larson.Īs a staff plus engineer, you will be working longer time frames, and you have to be ok with that. Blanca Garcia Gil presented Five Behaviours to Become an Effective Staff-Plus Engineer at QCon London 2022.Ī few years ago technical leaders such as Pat Kua, Will Larson and Tanya Reilly realised there was not a clear description of what a staff plus engineer does nor their career path. To increase your effectiveness as a staff-plus engineer, it can help to develop your communication, listening, technical strategy, and networking skills.

Staff Engineer by Will Larson