Staff Engineer

Note: as one progresses along a career path, one should possess and show all qualities of levels below.

Years of Experience: 5+

Knowledge & Technical Skill

• Designs and creates architecture that shapes large parts of our business

• Ships complex projects including core shared libraries/components, systems or major pieces of infrastructure

• Deeply knowledgeable in major parts of our technology stack and is the technical owner of significant components of our code base

• Is a prolific contributor to core projects as well as R & D work

• Is a major contributor to system migrations, including the operational aspects (e.g., implementing the Strangler Pattern in legacy migrations)

Impact & Output

• Sets short to medium term strategic direction for part of the technology stack, identifying areas of critical need based on future growth and developing roadmaps to address

• Sets ambitious objectives and is able to effectively prioritize initiatives. Prioritizes own time between supporting teams and individual spikes of R&D, prototyping, etc.

• Acts as a multiplier by building systems, authoring tools, or introducing policies, practices, or patterns

• Able to switch contexts quickly

• Works on problems that are very open-ended even to the leadership who presented the problem

• Provides considerable high-level technical guidance to other engineers across projects

Communication

• Can communicate complex technical solutions to other developers

• Able to explain key solution details and communicate these to both technical and non-technical stakeholders

• Leads the conversations internally about the direction of major areas of the technology

• Provides oversight, coaching and guidance through code and design reviews, and consulting on approach, best practices, and documentation

• Represents DoSomething externally through conference appearances, technical talks, and writing

Leadership

• Is a respected leader and contributor across the organization and contributes to a positive public presence for DoSomething Engineering

• Has strong abilities to influence without requiring reporting authority

• Can make tough prioritization decisions to manage limited resources and make space for new opportunities by working smarter over time

• Capable of driving groups of disparate interests to decisions, and clearly communicating and seeing those decisions through to impact

• Participates in the Monthly Architecture Meeting

• Leads by example in communication style, writing ability, code quality, engineering practice, collaboration, architectural vision, and humility