Distinguished Engineer (L9) Describes Most Important Skill - Andrew Zhai

Andrew became a Distinguished Engineer at Pinterest through his 9+ year tenure at the company. He was one of 4 Distinguished Engineers in the whole company (1200 engineers).

• Most important skill: a deep understanding of people, business, and tech. That understanding is required to build trust from your team and the entire company to lead large-scale initiatives.
• Advice: Aggressively pursue impact. Being a Distinguished Engineer means that the company trusts you to tackle some of the hardest and most existential problems. Defining what those problems and getting the right functions involved is critical.

Here's the full playlist asking engineers what the most important skill is for their level: Asking 7 Levels Of Engineers The Most Important Skill

Helpful links:

• Senior Director shares his perspective on role evolution at the executive level
• How to write better code faster
• The story of SWE2 --> Principal Eng in 4 years
• Taro's top 10 to get promoted from senior to staff engineer
• David Pan on what makes a great tech lead
• Andrew Zhai on Twitter (X)