The joy of being staff+

Being a staff+ engineer means having significant influence without direct reports - equivalent to VP-level at some companies like Comcast

Key traits of successful staff+ engineers:

• Generosity in sharing knowledge and mentoring others
• Bravery in challenging status quo and existing systems
• Being outspoken (in your own way) about technical decisions
• Teaching complex technical concepts to non-technical people
• Leading through influence rather than authority

The career path requires:

• Continuing to write code while taking on broader architectural responsibilities
• Explaining technical decisions to both technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Being comfortable with less-defined role expectations compared to management track
• Challenging “that’s not how we do it” mindsets when needed

Success comes from:

• Finding joy in helping others understand and grow
• Being willing to share knowledge rather than hoarding it
• Contributing to the broader engineering community
• Taking on hard technical challenges others can’t solve
• Building consistency and quality in systems

The role is critical for:

• Teaching the next generation of engineers
• Influencing how organizations adopt new technologies
• Bridging technical and business perspectives
• Maintaining technical excellence while driving change
• Shaping how future generations will interact with technology