Staff+ Engineering Skills

The Staff+ engineering path finally has its books, but still lacks training resources. TADA the Staff+ Engineering Skills Track at QConSF!

Come learn from practitioners putting the key concepts noted in Tanya Reilly’s The Staff Engineer’s Path and Will Larson’s Staff Engineer into a digestible format with helpful takeaways. Find more clarity for answering the questions: 

  • “How do I become a Staff+ Engineer? What skills and experience am I missing?”
  • “As a Staff+ engineer, what is it that I actually do?” 
  • “How do I 10X my engineering organization by leveling up others?”
  • “I manage a Staff+ engineer. What should be my expectations of them? How do I support them?”

From this track

Session Staff Plus Engineering

An Incident Story: Tips for How Staff+ Engineers Can Impact Incidents

Monday Oct 2 / 10:35AM PDT

In this talk, Erin Doyle, will walk through her experience with a critical 3-day-long incident.

Speaker image - Erin Doyle

Erin Doyle

Founding Engineer @Quotient, 20+ Years Across Full Stack Development in Web and Mobile, and Platform Engineering

Session Staff Plus Engineering

Things Every Staff+ Engineer Should Know

Monday Oct 2 / 11:45AM PDT

As staff+ engineers, we're often thrown into the deep end and expected to navigate huge amounts of ambiguity including ambiguity about what our jobs even are. It's common to feel like there's a huge amount of trial and error or even luck.

Speaker image - Joy Ebertz

Joy Ebertz

Principal Engineer @Harness, Blogger, and Speaker, Previously @Box

Session Staff Plus Engineering

Managing Staff+ Engineers: Opportunities and Challenges

Monday Oct 2 / 01:35PM PDT

Staff+ engineers can be a powerful force in your organization…if you let them. Effectively managingStaff+ engineers requires different strategies than many managers are used to employing.

Speaker image - Adam Schirmacher

Adam Schirmacher

Staff Engineer & Manager of Staff Engineers @Gusto

Session

Panel: Staff+ Engineering Skills

Monday Oct 2 / 02:45PM PDT

Staff+ engineering is a critical role in any high-performing engineering organization. But what does it take to get promoted or get hired into a staff role? What does it take to keep it? Join us for a panel discussion with experienced Staff+ engineers who will share their insights.

Speaker image - Erin Doyle

Erin Doyle

Founding Engineer @Quotient, 20+ Years Across Full Stack Development in Web and Mobile, and Platform Engineering

Speaker image - Adam Schirmacher

Adam Schirmacher

Staff Engineer & Manager of Staff Engineers @Gusto

Speaker image - Joy Ebertz

Joy Ebertz

Principal Engineer @Harness, Blogger, and Speaker, Previously @Box

Speaker image -  Caleb Hyde

Caleb Hyde

Site Reliability Engineer @Expel

Session Staff Plus Engineering

Risk and Failure on the Path to Staff Engineer

Monday Oct 2 / 03:55PM PDT

Even as inaction can be a risk, deciding which actions to take in one's career involves choosing between different bets. I've developed a rubric for judging specific risks that I've taken.

Speaker image -  Caleb Hyde

Caleb Hyde

Site Reliability Engineer @Expel

Session

Unconference: Staff+ Engineering

Monday Oct 2 / 05:05PM PDT

What is an unconference? An unconference is a participant-driven meeting. Attendees come together, bringing their challenges and relying on the experience and know-how of their peers for solutions.

Track Host

Krystal Flores

Staff Software Engineer @Crunchyroll, Previously @Carta, @Lob, @Simple Habit, and @Nordstromrack.com|HauteLook

Krys Flores is a Staff Software Engineer at Crunchyroll on the Search and Recommendations team. She has previously held Staff Software Engineer roles at Carta and Lob, and earlier in her career worked at Simple Habit and Nordstromrack.com | HauteLook.

A self-taught engineer, Krys found her path into tech through persistence and curiosity and has built a career she loves. She is passionate about empowering underrepresented communities through mentoring, sponsoring, and speaking. She also shares resources to support those transitioning into tech.

Krys is also the host of O'Reilly's The Staff Engineers Career Roadmap webinar, where she answers four hours of questions about:

  • What is the difference between a senior and a staff engineer?
  • What should I do if I want to get promoted to staff engineer at my current company?
  • What should I do if I want to get hired into a staff engineering role?
  • What resources can I use to get there? (Hint: Krys includes tons of handouts and working sessions during the webinar.)
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