Marian Kamenistak · Free resources
Engineering Leadership Resources
The same five questions open most of my intro calls: what does this role own, who should it report to, and is the person you need a mentor or a coach. These are the written answers, drawn from 3,662 1:1 leadership sessions with engineering leaders. Reference pages, not news: they get revised when reality changes, not when a content calendar says so.
Mentoring vs Coaching: Which One You Need
Mentoring transfers experience, coaching builds clarity. The difference between coaching and mentoring, a comparison table, prices, and a 3-question test.
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Engineering Leadership: What It Is, and the Roles That Do It
What engineering leadership means in practice, the full role ladder from team lead to CTO, and how it differs from management. From 3,662 sessions.
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VP of Engineering: What the Role Owns, and How It Differs From CTO
The VPE vs CTO split in one table, the three signs a company needs a VP of Engineering, and the wrong reason to hire one. From a former VPE at Mews.
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What Is a CTO (Chief Technology Officer)? The Role and How It Changes With Company Size
CTO stands for Chief Technology Officer. The four jobs behind the title by team size, CTO vs CEO and CIO, what an AI CTO does, and what CTOs earn.
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CTPO: What a Chief Technology and Product Officer Does
CTPO or CPTO vs a CTO + CPO pair, in one table: who owns product, who owns tech, where fights land. When the merged seat works, and when it hides a hiring gap.
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Team Lead: The Role, vs Tech Lead, vs Engineering Manager
What a team lead is in software, how the role differs from tech lead and engineering manager, and how to survive the move from engineer to lead.
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What Is a Staff Engineer? Role, Scope, and Salary
Staff engineer is not senior engineer with a better title. What the role owns, where it differs from senior, and what it pays in Europe in 2026.
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Head of Engineering: What the Title Means and Where It Sits
How to level and classify a head of engineering: the title mapped against VP, director and CTO, the ISCO-08 and SOC codes HR uses, and the trap in the seat.
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Engineering Director (Director of Engineering): The Job, Duties and Pay
Engineering director, or director of engineering: what the job owns, what 10 real job ads ask for and pay, and how it differs from VP and EM.
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Forward Deployed Engineer: The Role Behind the Hype
Searches for forward deployed engineer grew 11x in a year. What the job covers, who is hiring, what it does to your career, and who should stay away.
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Engineering Manager Role: What You Own, What You Hand Over
What is an engineering manager? The role, its real responsibilities, what a senior engineer hands over in the move, and four ways year one goes wrong.
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Principal Engineer: Where the Level Sits Above Staff
What a principal engineer is, how it differs from staff and distinguished, why the title means different things at Amazon or Oracle, and what to ask.
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QA Engineer: The Job, the Ladder, and the Layoff Risk
What a QA engineer does, how it differs from a tester and an SDET, the ladder up to QA lead and head of QA, and why the last gate is the first one cut.
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AI QA Engineer: Two Jobs Behind One Title
AI QA engineer can mean testing AI systems with evals or testing software with AI tools. How to tell them apart, what each pays, and how to spot a gig.
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Technical Program Manager: The Role That Owns the When
A technical program manager owns the when across teams without owning the teams. TPM vs product manager, EM and project manager, pay, and the traps.
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AI Program Manager: Four Targets That Keep Moving
An AI program manager gets AI from pilot to production while the model, data, evals and EU AI Act keep moving. A risk register and what to negotiate.
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Member of Technical Staff Meaning: Why AI Labs Use One Title
Member of technical staff meaning: the flat title OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI give engineers and researchers, what it hides, and what to ask before you sign.
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Director of AI: Research, Product or Transformation Seat
Director of AI can mean a research lead, a product AI builder or an enterprise adoption owner. Who each reports to, what it pays, and what to negotiate.
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Platform Engineer: Role, Responsibilities and Salary
Platform engineer role: the responsibilities week to week, how it differs from DevOps, salary by level, and the red flags hiding in a job ad.
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AI Platform Engineer: What You Build and What You Own
AI platform engineer: how the role differs from ML platform and MLOps, the five layers you run, who owns what, and a plan for your first 90 days.
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Head of AI: What the Role Owns, and Who Gets the Seat
Head of AI: what the seat owns, the two roads into it, how it differs from Head of Engineering, and the contract to sign before you accept the title.
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VP of AI vs Chief AI Officer: Who Owns What
VP of AI vs Chief AI Officer: how the two seats and Head of AI split one AI mandate, what each controls, and what makes a CAIO seat more than a title.
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Applied AI Engineer: The Role, and the Ladder Above It
What an applied AI engineer owns, how the job differs from AI engineer, staff and principal AI engineer, and what a promotion case above it must prove.
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AI Product Manager: What Changes When the Product Guesses
AI product manager: what changes when output is probabilistic, from eval sets and launch criteria to cost per answer, and the red lines to set first.
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AI Champion: What the Role Asks and What to Agree First
AI champion: the person a company names to drive AI adoption on top of a day job. The hours it takes, what it pays, and what to agree before you say yes.
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AI Enablement Lead: Training, Tools and Adoption, Measured
AI enablement lead: the seat that turns AI licences into changed work. What 15 postings ask for, a six-stage ladder, and metrics a CFO accepts.
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AI Governance Lead: Who Says No to an AI Use Case
AI governance lead: who says no to an AI use case, and on what basis. A RACI built from 14 postings, the EU AI Act clock, and what to own in writing.
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Data Science Manager: The Seat Between Notebooks and the P&L
Data science manager: what the seat owns, where head of data science and CDO sit above it, and a 0-2 test of whether your team runs as a consultancy.
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Manager as Coach: The Questions That Grow Engineers
Manager as coach in practice: the 1:1 questions that grow engineers, what each answer tells you, and what to ask your own manager or mentor.
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How to Become an Engineering Manager: The Path That Works
How to become an engineering manager: the one signal to stay IC, why internal promotion beats switching companies, the 6-month runway, the 90-day trap.
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Engineering Manager Course vs Mentor: What Each Costs and Buys
Engineering manager course vs 1:1 mentor vs company program, priced: 1,130 EUR for a 2-day cohort, 395 EUR a session, and when the cohort is the better buy.
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How to Become a CTO: The Path and the One Readiness Test
How to become a CTO from senior engineer, head of engineering or founder: the three routes and their split, one readiness test, and which first seat to take.
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Past the definitions?
If the question on your desk is no longer "what is this role" but "how do I survive it", that is what the 1:1 work is for.