The secret to becoming a staff software engineer is to maintain a track record of excellence as you climb the engineering career ladder. Just like the role of any leader, a staff engineer is in charge of leading engineering teams and overseeing projects, from planning to execution.
Staff software engineers’ duties vary from organization to organization, but there are four basic categories into which a staff engineer’s duties can fall. Will Larson, the Chief Technology Officer at the software company, Calm, has named these roles the Tech Lead, the Architect, the Solver, and the Right Hand. Below is a brief rundown of these roles, which often overlap.
- Tech Lead. A Tech Lead guides their team of engineers through the planning and execution of a project, which is usually centered around a specific niche.
- Architect. An Architect has a detailed understanding of technical constraints and users’ needs, usually within a narrowly defined area of expertise. They use their specialized knowledge to provide direction and support to the rest of the team.
- Solver. A Solver is someone who takes the lead in tackling complex problems that arise unexpectedly to find a path forward.
- Right Hand. The Right-Hand acts as an extension of the organization’s leadership team, operating within the scope of its executive procedures.
Learning more about what a staff software engineer does and how you can prepare for this career path can help you determine whether the role interests you.
Who is a staff software engineer?
A staff software engineer works on the technical team at an organization, typically under a senior management-level team member, to repair, develop, and maintain company software to ensure an efficient user experience. As a staff software engineer, your duties include finding and implementing solutions for issues, creating new software or applications by writing code, using visual development environments to debug, and ensuring the technical architecture runs smoothly.
A significant aspect of your job is to not only contribute your skills but also mentor other software engineers to improve their skills and productivity.
Staff software engineers work with cross-functional teams to design, plan, and implement complex software-related projects. As senior leaders, they can apply their years of experience to make executive decisions and provide guidance to other engineers. They stay current with software trends to design solutions that prevent security risks and help people within the organization work more efficiently.
They can also use this knowledge to identify innovative opportunities for improvement and prepare competitive technical strategies.
Staff software engineer duties
Here are some primary tasks staff software engineers often manage:
- planning, analyzing, designing, implementing, testing, and maintaining software
- creating complex architectural frameworks for components and features of new software programs
- reviewing code written by junior engineers to ensure their work meets quality standards
- providing regular constructive feedback and conducting performance reviews
- thinking critically to overcome challenges that arise during the development and implementation of a project
- optimizing products and performing regular scalability enhancements
- fostering effective communication in a collaborative work environment
- collaborating with quality assurance engineers and software testers to ensure the functionality of a new product
- guiding and mentoring members of the software engineering team
- contributing to the hiring process by determining the team’s needs and interviewing candidates
- communicating with senior leaders and executives to determine the organization’s unique software needs
- solving challenging technical issues as they arise and developing strategies to prevent further errors
- ensuring the team follows best practices and adheres to strict coding standards
- staying current with new tools and emerging technologies and recommending suitable applications
- presenting progress reports to senior leaders
Responsibilities
Problem-first mindset
Every engineering organization has an overwhelming amount of technical problems. A staff software engineer is responsible for discovering the problems that pose a risk to the business.
- The developer experience in a particular domain is terrible, which kills developer velocity and hurts product development.
- The responsibilities of a microservice are nebulous, which causes teams to stall and hurts product development.
- A business-critical codepath can’t handle a 10X magnitude bump and needs a re-architecture.
A large list of problems is not useful by itself. In addition to discovering problems, a staff software engineer also has the responsibility to prioritize them.
A common risk is for staff software engineers to hand off prioritization to managers. While an engineering manager can help with operational logistics, they may not be as informed on the technical implications of the problems at hand.
Transform competing opinions into decisions
Software developers inevitably grow attached to their work. Attachments often lead to conflicting technical opinions, and in the worst-case scenario, block progress for the company.
Tensions are high surrounding the responsibilities of a particular microservice. There is no clarity for the service’s future. One team wants to expand its scope; another team wants to narrow it. Both groups have valid arguments and concerns, but development has stalled. Staff Engineers are responsible for breaking technical stalemates. They do this by talking to stakeholders, weighing trade-offs, and arriving at strong, opinionated recommendations.
Recommendations are only recommendations. Staff software engineers must push through friction and create decisions. Decision-making is a difficult process and will leave certain engineers upset; this is something that can’t simply be delegated to management. As a Staff Engineer, turning a prolonged technical debate into a recorded decision is a huge win for the company.
Concede with humility
As a staff software engineer, you may find yourself holding on to an opinion. Discussions surrounding an important architecture decision are going nowhere and now a Principal Engineer needs to conduct a tiebreaker. Even though arguments can be healthy, these situations are costly and must be minimized.
Staff software engineers should practice egoless programming and know when to compromise. There is a difference between standing up for what you believe in and being stubborn.
Create more staff software engineers
As with any other role, the end goal is to replicate yourself. For staff software engineers, this means creating more staff engineers. A convenient byproduct of creating a prioritized list of technical problems is that you’ve automatically created a set of high-impact projects for growing senior engineers.
This is a great way to elevate your colleagues while giving yourself extra bandwidth.
Choose the right problem to solve
Staff software engineers must thoughtfully choose which problems they want to personally handle. They can solve problems that most engineers cannot. By definition, there are fewer of these problems and they must be properly identified out of the sea of technical issues.
There are two common risks if business-impacting problems are not properly assigned. First, if a staff software engineer chooses to work on a “comfortable” problem, then a senior engineer misses a growth opportunity and the staff software engineer’s time is underutilized. This is counterproductive because the engineering organization doesn’t grow.
Second, if a complex problem is delegated to an engineer who isn’t ready for it yet, an inadequate solution implemented for a critical business problem could put the company in worse shape than how it started.
Staff software engineer skills
Here are some skills you can develop throughout your career to excel as a staff software engineer:
- Software development and design methodologies. Familiarity with software development operations (DevOps) allows you to plan and organize your projects more efficiently. Development and design methodologies provide a structured approach to the process that can lead to increased success.
- Project management. As a senior leader, you can develop excellent project management skills to delegate tasks and guide the team towards shared goals. Project management skills comprise progress tracking, resource allocation, and time management.
- Knowledge of programming languages. Proficiency with several programming languages enables you to write effective code and troubleshoot any errors that arise. Learning to code with different languages allows you to work on diverse projects and communicate more clearly with developers and engineers.
- Strategic planning. You can use strategic planning abilities to understand large-scale company goals and align software development projects with the organization’s needs. Strategic planning skills also allow you to anticipate future demands and identify innovative solutions to support company growth and development.
- Data analysis. Analyzing performance metrics can help you make logical and data-driven decisions during the software development process. This is also valuable when communicating project details to other senior leaders and executives.
- Cloud computing. Familiarity with cloud computing services can make software development projects more efficient. You can use modern cloud computing platforms to design scalable software solutions.
How to start your career as a staff software engineer
It can take several years to gain the skills and experience necessary to succeed as a staff software engineer. Here are some steps you can follow when preparing for this career path:
Learn about coding and programming
There are several opportunities to learn basic coding principles and skills early in your career. You can do this independently by taking boot camps or short courses online or pursuing personal projects in which you can practise and develop your skill set. Some high schools offer introductory coding courses, so these can be beneficial to select as electives if they’re available.
You might also consider the local community or online classes you can complete at your own pace.
Pursue a postsecondary qualification
While software engineering roles don’t always require candidates to have formal education, completing a bachelor’s degree or college diploma in a related field can help you become a more competitive candidate during your job search. Software engineering boot camps provide opportunities for practical skill development, while a diploma or degree prepares you with valuable theoretical knowledge. A postsecondary qualification can be essential when applying for senior software engineering roles but may be optional for entry-level positions.
Investing in your education is valuable if you plan to pursue a staff software engineer position. Programs related to software engineering, software development, or computer science can provide foundational skills and practical experience. As software engineering and programming are virtual, it’s often possible to complete these qualifications entirely online.
Seek certifications
You can complete certifications that verify your software development abilities. These may help you impress employers and find entry-level programming or software development roles. For example, you can find certifications related to specific programming languages, web development, cloud computing, application programming interfaces (APIs), or software testing. It’s beneficial to consider certifications that demonstrate your theoretical and practical knowledge of software engineering processes.
Gain experience
Entry-level software development roles are excellent opportunities to learn from more experienced developers and gain practical experience. For example, you may apply for a role as a junior software developer or junior software engineer. These roles typically involve writing basic code, troubleshooting errors, and assisting senior engineers or development managers with framework design.
Consider volunteering for more responsibilities and leadership opportunities at every stage of your career. This allows you to demonstrate and develop skills you can use to become a senior or staff software engineer, such as teamwork, communication, and problem-solving. These roles often involve more leadership, supervisory, and strategic planning responsibilities.
Consider higher education
As a staff software engineer is a senior leader within a company, some organizations may prefer candidates with formal education or an advanced degree. For example, you might pursue a Master of Science in software engineering to prepare for the role’s responsibilities. This is not always a requirement, so developing your skills and gaining leadership experience may be sufficient to qualify you for career advancement opportunities.
Apply for career advancement opportunities
Depending on your career goals and the size of the organization you work for, seeking internal promotions might help you advance to a staff software engineer role more quickly. Building an excellent reputation by demonstrating your skills and abilities can make your career progression more natural. Some small organizations may not require a staff software engineer, so seeking roles with larger companies may offer more opportunities to achieve this job title.
As a senior position, the hiring process can be competitive, so highlighting advanced education or certifications and including letters of recommendation can be highly beneficial.
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