Role of a Technical Leader
I joined Cisco Meraki like a year ago as a Sr. SWE and got promoted to a Technical Leader.
I kinda did the role of a Technical Leader as a Sr. SWE like mentoring junior engs, doing lots of code reviews, keeping up the code quality, contributing to org wide projects and such. I learnt all these things from working for Meta as a L5.
Now that i got a new "Title", i have a feeling that i should do something more and different - I am not sure if i should feel that way because this is the first time i am at this level in my career. I am wondering what i should do to keep up with the expectations. When i had this convo with my Manager, got some tips but all around, it was the same things what i did before but i got repeateadly said that expectations for a Technical Leader is going to be much higher than a Sr. SWE.
I saw a whole bunch of youtube videos and blog post reg Technical Leader role but i kinda know that already, I am sure a bunch of engs already been through this already.
Any advice would be super helpful.
Discussion
(2 comments)- 0a month agoTech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
it was the same things i did before but i got repeateadly said that expectations for a Technical Leader is going to be much higher than a Sr. SWE.
Promotions in Big Tech cos are lagging, meaning you should already be operating at the next level before you get the promotion. (I discuss this in the Senior to Staff course here: Why Is The Staff Promotion So Hard?)
So it may not be the case that you have to change your output or behavior. You could be doing just fine!
A big company like Cisco will almost certainly have an evaluation rubric for each level. Can you look at that and judge your work according to that criteria?
The other recommendation I have is to observe the behavior of other Technical Leaders in the company: Talk & Observe. Following this will remove the anxiety you're dealing with about what exactly your role should be.
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a month agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course HeroI know a lot of people at Cisco, so I'm fairly familiar with Cisco leveling. Assuming Meraki uses the same system as core Cisco, Tech Lead 1/2 should map to the higher-end of Meta E5 and Meta E6. I recommend going through the senior to staff course to further understand these levels: Grow From Senior To Staff Engineer: L5 To L6
If you go to L5 properly, L6 should largely feel like you're doing L5 things but better and with larger scope. If I were to guess, this is why this promotion doesn't feel transformational.
I recommend this tech lead course as well: Tech Lead Blueprint: Role, Skills, and Strategies
Congrats on getting to Technical Leader!
