The Staff Engineer's Path: A Guide for Individual Contributors Navigating Growth and Change

by Tanya Reilly

A scope too narrow Beware, too, of scoping yourself too narrowly. A common example is when a staff engineer is part of a single team, reporting to a line manager. Managers might really like this—they get a very experienced engineer who can do a large percentage of the design and technical planning, and perhaps serve as a technical leader or team lead for a project. Some engineers will love this too: it means you get to go really deep on the team’s technologies and problems and understand all of the nuances. But watch out for the risks of a scope that’s too narrow: Lack of impact It’s possible to spend all of your time on something that doesn’t need the expertise and focus of a staff engineer. If you choose to go really deep on a single team or technology, it should be a core component, a mission-critical team, or something else that’s very important to the company. Opportunity cost Staff engineers’ skills are usually in high demand. If you’re assigned to a single team, you may not be top of mind for solving a problem elsewhere in the org, or your manager may be unwilling to let you go. Overshadowing other engineers A narrow scope can mean that there’s not enough work to keep you busy, and that you may overshadow less experienced people and take learning opportunities away from them. If you always have time to answer all of the questions and take on all of the tricky problems, nobody else gets experience in doing that. Overengineering An engineer who’s not busy can be incli...