I say 'in general' because that has been my experience everywhere I've known over the last 20 years.
"Senior engineer/dev" is a title, this is not the same as being the 'senior member' of the team.
In general (as per above) the title is given to devs with about 5 years of experience. It does mean more responsibility, but mostly in terms of being able to carry out dev. work without 'hand holding'. So I would say that a "senior engineer/dev" is simply a dev. who has reached full capability as a dev. Sure you are expected to help "junior engineers" but that's not the same as having leadership responsibilities. It's more like in a cop movie when the experienced guy is assigned a rookie as partner.
In larger organisations (which is most of my experience) "senior engineers" are not the senior members of technical teams, which are "principal engineers" or above.
> "Senior engineer/dev" is a title, this is not the same as being the 'senior member' of the team.
I call bs.
I should probably say, “that hasn’t been my experience”, but I just flat out don’t believe you.
So, let me get this straight. In 20 years, you’ve found that senior developer is the role given to developers who have no responsibility above what a junior developer has, they just cost more?
Rubbish.
It’s a sliding scale; I bet you those senior developers have other responsibilities; code reviews, mentoring, deployments, prod support, ci/cd.
I have never worked in, or heard of, an organisation where senior developers just get to sit around, goof off and write code all day… but get paid a senior developer rate.
Sounds great!
What organisations are these? I want to work there! Hook me up.
I think you’re suggesting that responsibility for team and project management is like a step function; you get none until you’re a principal.
That certainly hasn’t been my experience.
I honestly just have to say I flat out don’t believe that in 20 years at large organisations it has been yours either.
In my experience, you are correct. In the wrong organization, you are eventually given so many "other" responsibilities, that you barely get to do any hands-on development work. You'll be doing code reviews, support, and documentation all day.
"Senior engineer/dev" is a title, this is not the same as being the 'senior member' of the team.
In general (as per above) the title is given to devs with about 5 years of experience. It does mean more responsibility, but mostly in terms of being able to carry out dev. work without 'hand holding'. So I would say that a "senior engineer/dev" is simply a dev. who has reached full capability as a dev. Sure you are expected to help "junior engineers" but that's not the same as having leadership responsibilities. It's more like in a cop movie when the experienced guy is assigned a rookie as partner.
In larger organisations (which is most of my experience) "senior engineers" are not the senior members of technical teams, which are "principal engineers" or above.