Recently, one of my special directors asked how I looked at the qualifications of a senior engineer. This is what I share with the people on my team, and because of the strong local experience, I thought it might be helpful to other corporate executives, directors, CTO startups, recruitment teams, professional development leaders, and so on.
While the name, position, and purpose of your business may vary, I hope it will help to foster dialogue between engineers and managers, and encourage those we are blessed to lead. I am passionate about thoughts and feedback in the comments.
I look at the skills of the lead engineer demonstrated in some dimensions. A senior engineer demonstrates all the qualities of a senior engineer in a broader area of ​​influence and assumes that the individual understands that level and works successfully at that level. This is certainly not a definitive list of all the skills needed to be effective at the lead level. However, the following description usually helps.
Professional Summary of surveillance
I would expect the general appearance of a Product Guide to include a small product or service of 3-5 (different depending on the size), which means that they have a good understanding of the basics, the design models, areas of concern, how they work, design models and so on.
I hope they have the ability to buy a product or a handful of services to get the desired business results. They worked with product development consultants to work together on strategic decisions and a deep understanding of the impact of these decisions. In fact, they can make the right decision-making process based on a deep understanding of the services and the way they work together. They understand where to break those ideas and work closely with other teams to establish service improvements, create project plans and give our people an experience.
Technical specifications
I hope they have a deep and growing understanding of how to best use their rules for measurement. While the quality of the product may vary depending on the quality of the product, team or organization, they understand and apply the principles to effectively analyze, track, journal, monitor and evaluate the health of their products.
Project Owners / Projects Summary of perspective
With regard to the field of technical supervision mentioned above, I hope that the engineer will also have the ability to apply the work and scope of this work to suitable solutions for 3 mechanical engineers. . Finding and testing effectively involves creating these workboxes in small groups in order to execute, depending on who can complete the task and during that task, among others. limited team. This goal may be to work with other engineers, however, Lead Engineers have the experience and expertise to demonstrate breaking down tasks, effectively challenging the goals of others, identifying risks. , etc., to make sure it is broken. good and overall the project is well understood and well documented.
The accuracy of the predictions
I often think (70-80% of the time) to be able to accurately estimate (within 150% of the rating) their story / work and to understand how to help others on their team to achieve this. I hope they understand what a good ticket looks like, to write it down and to push them when they need paperwork by another team member who needs more clarity. I expect that their calculations will be completed, following the specification and clarification the team will make, within 150% of the original estimate. This includes evaluating all phases of the process to get to the "Finish", not just the execution process, e.g. Research, collaboration, fulfillment time, essay writing, personal QA, release and more.
Improvement of team/department
I hope they still have ideas for improving the quality of their teams/groups/departments. They analyze technical factors and define the problem, such as making recommendations for implementation, improving operations to reduce vibration and altitude, improving performance, etc.
I hope to have a deep understanding and increase knowledge about their products, their users and the market that operates within them.
I hope they know their team and product (s) of success values ​​and apply this knowledge to the products they build.
Lead
I hope to show leadership so that others come to them with confidence because they are known as the ones who can come to gain a deeper understanding, clarity and more.
It expertly guides others through meetings, plans, and any measures needed to achieve the team's goals.
Communication
These expectations mean that the engineer has embarked and worked in this role long enough to display them effectively. I expect to usually see these skills demonstrated in the growth progress, as the understanding of the product and the team grows. In general, sometime within 2 - 3 months, people usually have a solid understanding of their team's products, and between 4 and 6 months, they really begin to understand the broader ecosystem in which their product operates and displays an impact. raised in these areas.