

Ask HN: Director of Technology or Principle Software Engineer? - bodytitle

So here is the deal. Yesterday one of the partners who owns the startup I work at had a quick conversation about my future with the company. I was the initial developer hire with the startup (we more than doubled in size the last three years) and I built out a team of developers and other tech people to keep things moving. Now they have an opportunity to bring in a "ringer" (someone who has managed tech teams at this stage of business) but they also want to keep me happy.<p>My impression is that I could push either way. I could work to continue managing the company's technology and team or, as an alternative, I could become something like a principle software engineer and take on the task of figuring out where our platform is going while giving up day to day work on protecting the company's existing $20 million cash flow and managing the team.<p>There are pros and cons to both but I was curious what other folks thought. I'm still one of the better developers on the team and I know the most about our platform. In theory I could add more value to the company by leveraging my knowledge to help bring together a new data warehouse, a cloud platform, a facebook app, a mobile app, etc.<p>On the other hand I like managing folks, everyone was hired to work with me, I feel challenge learning about running the business, and, while I don't get to code as much this way, I still bring a lot of value on that end. I'm also worried that I'm giving up something for my future career if my title changes at this stage in the game.<p>So my general questions:
- Are my fears founded?
- How would I carve out the role in such a way that I'm not just a member of the dev team working under a new manager?
- Do other firms have roles like this? How effective are they (for the person and the company)?
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deskamess
Need some clarification... if your impression is that you could continue to
manage the company's technology and team, what would be the purpose/title of
the ringer?

A title of Director of Technology should not worry you at all. To the majority
of the companies it is a managerial level title and can be used to move to
higher management level titles/responsibilities. In this case it is also
responsible for protecting revenues, etc.

The Principle/Principal Engineer is usually given out to someone who has
advanced the field in their discipline. The title progression usually goes to
Distinguished Engineer/Scientist after that. I am not sure how often a
Principal Engineer gets to switch to the management path.

So, given your liking of management, I would go with the Director Of
Technology.

