Latest
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“Vibe hacking” signals seismic shift for engineering leaders
Blackhat hackers have an addition to their armoury. Here’s how engineering leaders can safeguard their systems and stay on high alert.
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Where staff+ engineers can move the needle
As you become more senior in your role, the pressure to expand your impact grows. Here are some ways to get the ball rolling.
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AI coding trackers are here. Proceed with caution
Companies are finally starting to track AI usage within their engineering orgs. Should we be worried or remain cautiously optimistic?
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Navigating the emotional rollercoaster of leadership
Any well-seasoned leader will know that it’s not always an easy journey. The key is to tackle the low moments with the right approach.
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5 AI agent frameworks for developer teams
If you’re thinking of dipping your toes into the agentic pool, here are some frameworks you could explore.
Editor’s picks
What is a staff engineer? Technical leaders who aren’t managers
Staff engineers are technical leaders who have deep domain knowledge, walking the line between tech and the business.
October 15 & 16, 2025
Agendas for New York events are live! 🙌
Essential reading
Who are staff, principal, and distinguished engineers?
Understand the differences between staff, principal, and distinguished engineers. Job description and salaries included.
On our StaffPlus playlist
How to master the four Staff archetypes and elevate your impact
While the specifics of the job can vary widely, Will Larson has famously categorized the Staff+ experience into four archetypes: Tech Lead, Architect, Solver, and the Right Hand.
Understanding the role as a Staff engineer
How to define, develop and deliver in your role on the technical track.
How to balance technical direction and leadership work
But as is often the case in business, priorities constantly shift and where you focus your efforts will too. So how do you strike the right balance between working on the technical direction of the business and those tasks that require you to put your leadership hat on?
Start with an exit in mind: How to be effective by being selfish as a staff engineer
Staff engineers often get overwhelmed by long-term ownership of critical projects. This talk explores how to avoid burnout by starting every project with an exit strategy—whether transferring ownership, pausing or bootstrapping a team.
Agendas for New York events are live!
Lineup includes Addy Osmani, Kevin Goldsmith, Robin Bonatesta, and more…
New York • October 15 & 16, 2025
More for Staff engineers
Videos for Staff engineers
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From dashboard soup to observability lasagna: Building better layers
Transform chaotic dashboards into a layered observability strategy that improves reliability, streamlines incidents, and builds real on-call confidence
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Building scalable systems in a complex compliance world
Gain actionable insights to build scalable, compliant systems that adapt to evolving regulations while maintaining engineering speed and agility
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Being secure by design: Engineer-led security
This talk shares how the secure-enough software challenge can be solved by building an engineer-led security culture, leading to a culture of collaboration and confidence in good security choices.
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The creative technologist
Learn how to build a creative practice to help you become a more creative leader.
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Using postmortems to break out of infinite loops
Our experience is our best resource when it comes to incident prevention, so why are we so resistant to learning from our past mistakes?
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Growing pains: Scaling and re-architecting systems under fire
Explore how stakeholder buy-in can make or break your system re-architecture during high-pressure scaling challenges.
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FORTRAN’s AI Playbook: Leadership lessons from history
Learn proven leadership strategies from FORTRAN’s history to successfully adopt AI, upskill teams, and drive lasting transformation at scale
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From monitoring to mastery: Building an observability-driven culture
This talk explores how Phorest shifted to an observability-driven culture by aligning technical vision with customer pain, empowering teams through proactive ownership, and embedding observability into software practices to enhance customer trust.
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Escaping the rewrite trap
Gain practical frameworks to assess rewrites vs. evolution, plan successful migrations, and align teams and stakeholders without losing momentum.
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Technical Steering Groups: Balancing autonomy, technical alignment, and speed through strategic collaboration
Learn how technical steering groups drive technical alignment while fostering ownership – balancing autonomy and collaboration to fuel speed, innovation, and impactful decision-making across teams.
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Becoming an AI Engineering company
Learn how to operationalize AI across your organization to drive innovation, improve efficiency, and stay ahead in a competitive market
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The million dollar bug: Quality leadership lessons from costly failures
CrowdStrike lost $5.4B, Sonos stumbled into a $500M crisis – and they’re not alone. Learn battle-tested leadership strategies to protect your organization from quality catastrophes that can shake your business to its core.