In this section I focus on topics for technical leadership (Staff Data Scientist, Staff Machine Learning Engineer).

In the last couple of years, I’ve been interesed as a people manager on how support this profile in my teams, identify when and how I need them in my teams, and even to play it by myself when possible and needed.

More specifically, I wanted to develop people beyond that first step into technical leadership, which consists of leading implementation and mentoring junior and senior.

In 2023, I teamed up with my team’s Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Caique Lima, and prepared a couple of workshops for the Lead Machine Learning Engineers we had in our Org. Beyond our own experience, they were based on three books: Team Topologies 1, The Staff Engineer’s Path 2, and the Staff engineer: leadership beyond the management track 3.

I will share a revised version of it and keep adding as I learn from the trajectories of professionals on this track. There is a template for the activities.

A suggested order

Section Reference Activity
Conway's law and team boundaries Team Topologies Describe the flow of change from previous projects and identify domains in your team
Team types Team Topologies Describe actions from your team that support or oppose your team type's expected behaviors
Desigining and evolving systems by designing team interactions Team Topologies Design a high-level architecture and find out the team design that elicits it
What is your job description? Staff engineer, leadership beyond the management track; The staff engineer’s path Write the job description for a Staff in your team
Problem solving Various Write the problem statement; Build a decision-matrix; Run a premortem
Tech driven career - Identify the state of your team, the state of the art, and how to move from present to an idea state
Dealing with risk - Identify the sources of uncertainties in your initiatives and how you can de-risk them

References

  1. Skelton, M., & Pais, M. (2019). Team topologies: organizing business and technology teams for fast flow. : It Revolution. ↩

  2. Reilly, T. (2022). The staff engineer’s path: a guide for individual contributors navigating growth and change. : O’Reilly Media, Incorporated. ↩

  3. Larson, W., & Reilly, T. (2021). Staff engineer: leadership beyond the management track. : Will Larson. ↩

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