Staff engineers that report to directors or whatever the equivalent 2nd or third mgmt level is are most effective in my experience.
An important part of the job is to “borrow” your boss’s authority and for that to work they need to have some. I’ve seen staff engineers be ineffective because of their boss’s position many times.
Reporting to someone higher than director you start getting too disconnected from on the ground stuff (architecture astronaut syndrome) and lower the ground is all you can see.
An important part of the job is to “borrow” your boss’s authority and for that to work they need to have some. I’ve seen staff engineers be ineffective because of their boss’s position many times.
Reporting to someone higher than director you start getting too disconnected from on the ground stuff (architecture astronaut syndrome) and lower the ground is all you can see.