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Conor Bronsdon for LinearB

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Defining The Role Of Staff Engineer w/ Will Larson of Calm

On this week’s episode of Dev Interrupted we’re tackling one of the most ambiguous and subjective roles in the software engineering career path: the Staff Engineer.

Many companies don’t even have this role, and the ones that do have a hard time defining exactly what it means. Will Larson, the CTO of Calm, and author of the new book, Staff Engineer: Leadership Beyond the Management Track, joins us to share his research on what a Staff Engineer actually is and whether or not companies need one.

Listen to the full episode

Episode Highlights include:

  • The different archetypes of the Staff Engineer role
  • Whether or not a purely technical senior role exists
  • The differences between management and leadership
  • Strategies for becoming a Staff Engineer
  • How to decide if your organization needs a Staff Engineer role

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