Becoming, understanding and improving as a Staff Engineer

This is a collection of all of the advice and links that I provide to anyone that asks about the Staff Engineer role, what it is and how you can get the job.

Overview

Nobody is perfect and it often feels like everyone is trying to figure this out as they go. A Staff Engineer is a Technical Leadership role, which is future-focused and responsible for the technical direction and its execution, but not actually doing the execution of tasks. As a leader you have implicit authority and influence but no direct control. The tasks you undertake and the challenges you face are varied and require different skills and management styles to complete, and you often need to adapt and adjust your style to be effective.

Resources

Things to Watch or Attend

StaffPlus London 2025 | The only event for Staff+ engineering in Europe
leaddev.com
Scaling your influence through documentation
In this talk I'm reflecting on my 2 year journey as a Staff Engineer, and how a mix of documentation and working groups has been a surprisingly effective strategy for influencing the opinions of the individual engineers as well as the non-technical stakeholders.
leaddev.com

Things to Read

Articles

Is Staff Engineering what you want to be doing?

Who are staff, principal, and distinguished engineers?
Understanding the individual contributor leadership career ladder
leaddev.com
The Engineer/Manager Pendulum
Lately I’ve been doing some career counseling for people off Twitter (long story). The central drama for many people goes something like this: “I’m a senior engineer, but I’m thin…
charity.wtf

Being better as a Staff Engineer

Ability to See Expertise is a Milestone Worth Aiming For
Good news: we have a neat, universal milestone on the journey to mastery. What that looks like, and how to use it.
commoncog.com
How to get leadership buy-in on your tech strategy
For some Staff+ engineers, technical strategy development is an expectation, and not an easy one to navigate. Ras Kasa Williams is here to help you get buy-in for that strategy.
leaddev.com

Books

Understanding the Staff Engineer role

The Staff Engineer's Path
A Brown Bag session giving an overview of The Staff Engineer's Path, the book by Tanya Reilly.
www.psyked.co.uk
Staff Engineer: Leadership beyond the management track
Buy Staff Engineer: Leadership beyond the management track
staffeng.com
The Staff Engineer's Path
For years, companies have rewarded their most effective engineers with management positions. But treating management as the default path for an engineer with leadership ability doesn't serve the industry well--or … - Selection from The Staff Engineer's Path [Book]
www.oreilly.com
The Engineering Leader
Great engineers don't necessarily make great leaders—at least, not without a lot of work. Finding your path to becoming a strong leader is often fraught with challenges. It's not easy … - Selection from The Engineering Leader [Book]
www.oreilly.com
Stripe Press — An Elegant Puzzle
A guide to engineering management that helps leaders create organizations where engineers can thrive.
press.stripe.com
Stripe Press — Scaling People
From a Stripe and Google executive, a practical guide to company building and scaling the most important resource it has: its people.
press.stripe.com

Being better as a Staff Engineer

Tidy First?
Messy code is a nuisance. "Tidying" code, to make it more readable, requires breaking it up into manageable sections. In this practical guide, author Kent Beck, creator of Extreme Programming … - Selection from Tidy First? [Book]
www.oreilly.com
Communication Patterns
The companion website for Communication Patterns: A Guide for Developers and Architects, by Jacqui Read
communicationpatternsbook.com
Fundamentals of Software Architecture: An Engineering Approach
Salary surveys worldwide regularly place software architect in the top 10 best jobs, yet no real guide exists to help developers become architects. Until now. This book provides the first … - Selection from Fundamentals of Software Architecture: An Engineering Approach [Video]
www.oreilly.com
Software Architecture: The Hard Parts
There are no easy decisions in software architecture. Instead, there are many hard parts--difficult problems or issues with no best practices--that force you to choose among various compromises. With this … - Selection from Software Architecture: The Hard Parts [Book]
www.oreilly.com
The Art of Leadership
Many people think leadership is a higher calling that resides exclusively with a select few who practice and preach big, complex leadership philosophies. But as this practical book reveals, what’s … - Selection from The Art of Leadership [Book]
www.oreilly.com

Things to Subscribe to

Mailing Lists

LeadDev Mailing List:

Get involved
leaddev.com

Things to Sign Up For

LeadDev Slack workspace:

Get involved
leaddev.com

Rands Leadership Slack:

Welcome to Rands Leadership Slack
For a role as crucial as Leadership, there is a shocking lack of required training on the topic. Combined with a tremendous collection of impenetrable literature, leadership is an essential skill learned on the job. The Rands Leadership Slack (“RLS”) exists to help longtime, new, and aspiring leader
randsinrepose.com

The Pragmatic Engineer:

The Pragmatic Engineer
Observations across the software engineering industry.
blog.pragmaticengineer.com

Things to Try

Architecture Katas

Architectural Katas: Practicing Architecture
www.architecturalkatas.com