Originally written as an internal working spec while I was at Cazoo, this post is my take on the responsibilities and mindset of a Staff Engineer. It helped me reflect on what the role requires, not just in terms of technical ability, but also leadership, communication, and constant adaptation.

Introduction

The Staff Engineer role can feel nebulous. It’s not quite management, but it’s also not just “Senior Engineer, but more so.” When I stepped into the role, I found myself constantly questioning: What should I be focusing on? What does success look like?

To answer that, I wrote down what I believed the role should encompass. This post is the cleaned-up version of that spec. It’s part philosophy, part operating manual.

The Role in a Nutshell

A Staff Software Engineer brings advanced technical skill and a strong sense of quality, leadership, and communication. It’s a role that blends design thinking, mentoring, business context, and servant leadership.

This is someone who:

  • Drives technical excellence.
  • Guides teams without pulling rank.
  • Mentors and grows engineers around them.
  • Communicates fluently across technical and non-technical domains.
  • Keeps one foot in the code, and one in the strategy.

Core Tenets

These are the pillars that, in my view, define the role.

1. Servant Leadership

The Staff Engineer leads by enabling others. They remove obstacles, give context, and help teammates succeed — without needing to be the loudest or most visible person in the room.

2. Mentoring and Coaching

They actively help other engineers grow — sharing experience, offering feedback, and creating space for others to step up.

3. Advanced Technical Skills & Quality Focus

In my case, this included deep expertise in:

  • TypeScript
  • AWS Lambda and the Serverless Framework
  • TDD and BDD practices

But more importantly, it meant advocating for a “Shift Left” approach — tackling quality early, writing strong tests, and building confidence into the development process.

4. Software Architecture

The Staff Engineer should be able to design scalable, secure, serverless systems — understanding trade-offs, constraints, and how to align architecture with business needs.

5. Problem Solving

This means breaking down complexity, identifying root causes, and coming up with solutions that work in real-world systems — not just whiteboard diagrams.

6. Communication

A key part of the role is acting as a bridge — translating technical ideas for stakeholders, and helping engineers understand the “why” behind the work.

7. Domain Understanding

Good decisions require context. A Staff Engineer needs to understand the business domain deeply enough to make trade-offs that serve real user and company needs.

The Mindset: Be Less Wrong Over Time

I tried to approach the role with a Bayesian mindset: always updating my understanding based on new evidence. In practice, this meant:

  • Re-evaluating what’s most important, constantly.
  • Adjusting plans as work reveals new complexity.
  • Changing approach based on feedback.
  • Keeping a habit of continuous learning.

This mindset helped me stay adaptive and avoid getting stuck in “default” thinking.

Measuring Impact

Performance at this level can’t be measured by ticket output. Instead, I think about impact across these dimensions:

  • Business outcomes: Are you driving results that matter?
  • Team enablement: Is the team more productive because you’re on it?
  • Mentorship: Are others levelling up with your help?
  • Communication: Can stakeholders understand you — and trust your judgement?
  • Learning and adaptability: Are you growing faster than the problems are changing?
  • Problem-solving: Are you taking on the hard, messy challenges?
  • Team feedback: Do your peers want to work with you again?
  • Stakeholder trust: Do people outside the team rely on you?

No single metric tells the full story. But together, they can indicate whether you’re making a difference.

Final Thoughts

This spec isn’t meant to be definitive — just a personal take. The Staff Engineer role will always vary based on the team, company, and product. But having a compass — a sense of what good looks like — has helped me stay focused on the kind of impact I want to have.

If you’re stepping into a Staff+ role, or just thinking about it, I hope this helps spark some ideas.