Senior or Staff Engineer, Tech Lead

Staff Engineer Mentor. For the IC whose "next cycle" already happened three times.

You are the person the team asks when the architecture question is tricky. You are the informal tech lead. Your promotion is "next cycle" for the third time. And you got the same 4% comp bump as everyone else in the last review.

You do not need another book about the Staff Engineer archetype. You need one person to help you build the specific promotion packet, or the specific external move, before your next perf cycle.

Book the intro →

Situations you are likely in, and how we tackle them

Your manager keeps hinting at promotion. Nothing happens.

I am the person the team asks when the architecture question is tricky. I wrote the load-test tool half the org now uses. Perf review comes around and I hear "next cycle." Again. And when I asked my manager last month what the specific gap is, he said "keep doing what you are doing." That is not an answer, that is a dodge.

You have probably tried

  • Doing more work, hoping visibility follows
  • Writing a "self-promotion" doc that felt cringe
  • Asking a Staff+ friend for advice (got "just keep pushing")
  • Reading The Staff Engineer's Path (still stuck on the same conversation)

How we tackle it

We build the promotion packet: the 3 highest-visibility artifacts from the last 12 months, framed for the promotion committee your manager reports to. We rehearse the "let us discuss my track" conversation. Then we install the quarterly review with your manager.

Target: Within 60 days: named promotion timeline in writing, and a specific list of what "ready" looks like.

Related reads

You are Staff Engineer. Nobody at your company knows what that means.

The title is on my LinkedIn. The job description was three bullets copied from a Reddit thread. Half the time I am asked to be a super-senior IC. The other half I am asked to run a project because "you are Staff, right?" And I said yes to too many things last quarter because I did not know what to say no to.

You have probably tried

  • Reading the Staff Engineer archetypes (still fuzzy on which you are)
  • Talking to another Staff at a bigger company (their role is nothing like yours)
  • Copying scope from a job description on LinkedIn
  • Waiting for your manager to define it (he wants YOU to define it)

How we tackle it

We define YOUR Staff-engineer scope in writing. Which archetype (tech lead, architect, solver, right-hand). Which weekly rituals prove the scope. Which meetings you join and which you decline. Then we present it to your manager as the working agreement.

Target: By week 6: written scope, signed off by your manager, and a decline template for scope-creep asks.

Related reads

You need to decide: management or Staff+ IC.

I have run a small team ad-hoc. I liked half of it and hated half of it. My director keeps offering the EM role. The Staff+ path exists on paper but I cannot see who is on it above me. Every senior person who knows me either has a stake in the answer or would tell me what I want to hear.

You have probably tried

  • Talking to your director (she wants you to switch)
  • Talking to your Staff friend (he wants you to stay IC)
  • Journalling in Notion for weeks
  • Waiting for a "clear signal" that is not coming

How we tackle it

We list what you actually want (not what sounds good on LinkedIn). We map both paths with year-2 and year-5 milestones. We test-drive each with a 2-week exercise. You leave with the decision and the specific words for the conversation with your director.

Target: By week 6: a written decision, tested, and the "here is where I am going" conversation prepared.

Related reads

You are the informal tech lead. You have no authority.

Nobody promoted me. Nobody assigned me the team. But everyone asks me the architecture question. Everyone routes the RFC through my desk. Everyone treats me as responsible when the incident happens at 2am. And when the recent comp review came around I got the same 4% as everyone.

You have probably tried

  • Telling your manager "I need this made official" (nothing changed)
  • Doing less, hoping they notice (they did not, but the incident count did)
  • Reading about tech-lead-without-title (still stuck)
  • Waiting to be "recognized" by the org

How we tackle it

We make the informal role formal. Tech lead definition in writing (yours, your manager's, and your team's versions must agree). RFC and design-review rituals you own. On-call adjusted. Then we work the promotion or comp conversation to match the responsibility.

Target: By week 8: written tech-lead scope, formal recognition or specific plan to get it, and a comp conversation on the calendar.

Related reads

AI wrote 60% of your last feature. The review process still assumes humans write every line.

I finished the payments feature in two weeks. Copilot and Claude did most of the typing. My review turnaround is now the bottleneck, not my throughput. My peers are quietly split on whether AI-assisted code counts as "my" work. And my manager has no framework to evaluate what I actually did this quarter.

You have probably tried

  • Being conservative in what you attribute to AI (still felt gray)
  • Reading think-pieces about "the AI-augmented engineer"
  • Waiting for your team to standardize (they will not)
  • Adding disclaimers in PR descriptions nobody reads

How we tackle it

We design the AI-assisted engineering standard for your team. Which review rituals need updating. What the promotion committee should measure for AI-augmented ICs. We draft the RFC you send to the whole team.

Target: By week 6: written team standard, review-flow update, and one metric your manager can use for AI-era perf reviews.

Related reads

You are the "go-to" and you are underpaid.

Every incident, every architecture call, every hard code review. I am the escalation. Nobody notices, everyone depends on me. Last comp review gave me the same 4% as everyone. And I know if I say something my manager will say "you are on our high-potential list" and hand me another initiative.

You have probably tried

  • Being visible (you already are)
  • Waiting for external offers to force the conversation
  • Reading levels.fyi and getting more resentful
  • Convincing yourself "it will balance next cycle"

How we tackle it

We quantify your load: specific incidents, specific reviews, specific hours per week. We turn it into the visibility artifact your manager needs to justify the pay bump. We rehearse the "here is what I do, here is what I should be paid for it" conversation.

Target: By week 6: quantified impact artifact, comp conversation on the calendar, and a fallback plan if the answer is no.

Related reads

The questions I hear most from Senior or Staff Engineer, Tech Lead

These are the exact asks from mentees in the last 12 months. Bring one to the intro call and we start there.

How mentoring with me works

  1. Step 1

    Intro session (free, 30 min)

    We understand your situation, background, and the two KPIs we would target. If we are not a fit, we stop here. If we are, we agree the cadence and the first homework.

  2. Step 2

    Session 1 and beyond

    We pick 2 specific KPIs to move over 3-6 months. Small written homework after every session. Everything we discuss stays between us.

  3. Step 3

    Reviews and cadence

    Regular progress reviews with you (optionally with your manager). Weekly or bi-weekly. Onsite in Prague or remote, both work.

Frequently asked

What if my company just does not have a real Staff+ path? Am I stuck?+

Then we work on the external play. Half the Staff-track mentees I coach end up moving companies. That is not failure. It is the honest answer when the internal path is theatre.

What if I only have 3 or 4 sessions before my next perf cycle?+

Then we compress. We work the promotion packet, the specific conversation, and the "next cycle" fallback. Every session ends with an artifact.

Will you tell me straight if management is a bad idea for me?+

Yes. Sometimes the honest answer is "management would make you miserable" and sometimes it is "you are avoiding IC because you think it caps you." I will say which.

What if I want to switch to management mid-mentoring?+

Common. If management is the right call, we transition sessions to the EM track. If Staff+ is right for you and management is a wrong fit, we work on how you decline the EM offer without limiting your career.

I am a senior engineer, not Staff yet. Is this for me?+

Yes. Half the mentees on this track are senior targeting Staff. Better to work the promotion mechanics before the promotion, not after.

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Why me

Marian Kamenistak

Marian Kamenistak. Ex-VPE at Mews (Series C, R&D scaled 10 to 80+ eng teams). Ex-Manta (acquired by IBM). Ex-Databricks Bay Area. Founder of Engineering Leaders Community (2,000+ members).

3,000+ mentoring sessions since 2019. Prague-based, serving EU + North America.

Ready to start?

Free 30-min intro. No pricing conversation on the first call. We figure out if we can move your specific problem forward. That is it.

Book the intro →Or emailmarian@marian.coach

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