Technical Leadership Resources

In general, technical leader and staff engineer are similar roles, just named differently at various companies. Here, techinical lead(er) and staff engineer will be used interchangibly.

General Resources

• The Definition of a Tech Lead - Titles like Architect, Tech Lead, Team Lead and Engineering Manager provide endless confusion. This article explores the definition of the Tech Lead role
• The Well Rounded Architect - Acting as a Leader, Being a developer, Having a systems focus, Thinking like an entrepreneur, Balancing strategic with tactical thinking, Communicating well
• Thriving on the Technical Leadership Path - So what does the more strategic work of a very senior engineer look like?
• Engineering IC Leadership - Gitlab’s view on Technical Leadership
• Finding the steps on the individual contributor ladder - Some experiences, learnings and questions to help people decide if the individual contributor (IC) route is for them
• Becoming an Organizational Leader - Progressing from a team leader to an organizational leader as an individual contributor
• Your CTO Should Actually Be Technical - Why engineering leaders also need to be great engineers
• How do Individual Contributors Get Stuck? - A Primer by Camille Fournier
• Who are staff, principal, and distinguished engineers? by leaddev.com

Staff Engineer

• StaffEng Tutorials - Guides for reaching and succeeding at Staff-plus roles

Staff Engineer+

• StaffEng-Plus Resources - Staff-plus resources
• Defining a Distinguished Engineer
• Build a network of peers - Guides/Build a network of peers
• Five must-reads for Staff+ engineers
• Beyond Staff Engineer by Alex Ewerlöf

How To

• An incomplete list of skills senior engineers need, beyond coding - For varying levels of seniority, from senior, to staff, and beyond
• 10 Admirable Attributes of a Great Technical Lead - There is no single formula to be a great tech lead. It’s a demanding position. It requires both sides of one’s capability: the heart, and the mind
• How to Influence Without Authority - Understand first, influence later