Staff Engineering Archetypes: Building a strong engineering team
Staff engineering is a career path that focuses on technical leadership and creating leverage through others. It requires a unique set of skills, experience, and traits to be successful in this role. Will Larson, the author of Staff Engineering: Leadership Beyond the Management Track, identifies four archetypes of staff engineers that can help you build a strong engineering team: Tech Lead, Architect, Solver, and Right Hand.
- Tech Lead: A staff engineer who excels at technical leadership. They have a deep understanding of the technical challenges facing the team and are able to provide guidance and support to help others succeed. They are excellent communicators and are able to break down complex technical concepts into understandable terms, also they can help at managing projects and coordinating with other teams to deliver high-quality solutions.
- Architect: Focused on designing and developing complex technical systems. Architects are skilled at identifying the strengths of each team member and aligning their work to maximize impact. They are also adept at identifying and removing roadblocks that stand in the way of progress.
- Solver: A Solver is a staff engineer who is skilled at solving complex technical challenges. They have a deep understanding of the technical landscape and are able to identify and implement solutions that are both practical and innovative. Solvers focus on troubleshooting issues and providing quick resolutions to technical problems as well.
- Right Hand: A Right Hand is a staff engineer who is skilled at supporting and enabling other staff engineers. Like a Solver, they have a deep understanding of the technical landscape as well, but the expected from them is to provide critical support to other staff engineers in order to help them be more effective in their roles.
When we are building an engineering team, it’s important to consider the strengths and weaknesses of each archetype and build a team that is diverse in terms of skillset and experience. For example, a team that is heavy on Tech Leads may be great at managing projects, but may struggle to deliver complex technical solutions. On the other hand, a team that is heavy on Architects may be great at designing complex technical systems, but may struggle with day-to-day technical challenges.
By understanding the archetypes of staff engineering, you can build a team that is well-rounded, diverse, and able to tackle any technical challenge that comes their way.
This is an introduction about the topic, if you like please let me know in comments or by clapping this article, then I'll make sure to go deeper and walk through how we can structure a team based on those archetypes.
References:
https://medium.com/building-carta/staff-engineering-at-carta-526b154fd317
