The Path to Senior Engineering Leadership

QCon San Francisco 2025

Track

The Path to Senior Engineering Leadership

Tuesday 18 November · 6 sessions, 50 minutes each

About the track

There’s no single roadmap to becoming a senior engineer -- but there are patterns, pitfalls, and possibilities worth exploring. This track highlights the many different ways experienced engineers grow into high-impact technical leaders -- whether by scaling startups, thriving as a solopreneur, climbing the ladder at FAANG companies, building careers through open source/standards, or steadily rising within smaller organizations. Our speakers bring radically different journeys to the table, but share a common thread: each has carved out a sustainable and influential role largely as an individual contributor. Through their stories, we’ll unpack the skills, strategies, and self-awareness it takes to grow into senior technical leadership, however you choose to make that journey.

Sessions in this track

Tuesday 18 November. 6 sessions per track, chosen and introduced by the Track Host.

10:35 Ballroom A Session Engineering Leadership Lead Without a Ladder: How I Climbed Into Engineering Leadership Pauline Jepp Head of Engineering @TicketSwap 11:45 Pacific DEKJ Session Panel: The Path to Senior Engineering Leadership Pauline Jepp, Brad Grantham, Kasia Trapszo, Joe Cassavaugh 13:35 Ballroom A Session Solopreneur A Solopreneur's Journey: From Engineer to Puzzle Master and Storyteller Joe Cassavaugh Creator of Clutter, Game Developer/Solopreneur - Previously @iWin, @WorldPlay 14:45 Ballroom BC Session Staff Plus Engineering Beyond Coding: How Senior ICs Grow Influence and Drive Impact Kasia Trapszo Principal Engineer @Netflix, Leading Architecture for the Commerce Platform 15:55 Ballroom A Session Technical Leadership Turning Outward: Growing From Code to Influence Brad Grantham Software Architect and Team Lead @LunarG - Responsible for Cross-Platform, GPU-Independent Graphics API Capture and Replay Technologies 17:05 Seacliff D Unconference Unconference: The Path to Senior Engineering Leadership
76% senior dev or higher
1:11 speaker ratio
60+ practitioners

QCon San Francisco 2025 is a three day conference for senior software engineers, architects and team leads. An international program committee of working engineers selects every session. Patterns and practices, not products and pitches.

Share