How to become a staff+ engineer

What do you need to be able to demonstrate to get promoted to a staff engineer?

Hosted by Blanca Garcia Gil

Speakers: Alex Ewerlöf , Maxi Ferreira , Curtis Allen , Duretti Hirpa

March 19, 2024

What do you need to be able to demonstrate to get promoted to a staff engineer?

Whether you’re interested in making the jump to an individual contributor role, or just curious to know how to become a staff+ engineer, this panel has you covered! We explore:

Key takeaways

What it takes to become a staff+ engineer
What skills you need to demonstrate before becoming a staff+ engineer and the ones you will need to be successful in the role
How to carve out the opportunities internally once you know what it takes to become a staff+ engineer
Who you can partner with in the organization to get the right experience and set yourself up for the transition

About the host

Blanca Garcia Gil

Blanca works as a Lead Analytics Engineer at the Berlin-based fintech startup Topi.

@blanquish

About the speakers

Alex Ewerlöf

Alex is a Senior Staff Engineer at Volvo Cars. He has a wide range of experience across multiple industries from media to robotics to telecom and health care. He’s a big advocate of inclusion, growth mindset, and applying systems thinking into career path. He shares his notes on his newsletter at https://blog.alexewerlof.com/

@alexewerlof
Maxi Ferreira

Maxi is a full-stack software engineer at Help Scout.

@Charca
Curtis Allen

I'm a Staff Engineer at Slack, where I've worked on the initial team that built Workflow Builder. I've since worked on rebuilding the Slack Developer Platform from the ground up. Before Slack, I've worked in education, financial, and government sectors, typically specializing in infrastructure and automation.

@cnallen
Duretti Hirpa

Duretti Hirpa is a writer and Staff Engineer based in San Francisco, California. She’s a ten-year veteran of the technology industry.

@duretti