Engineering roles with responsibility for design and delivery?
Are there engineering roles in FAANG, Microsoft, any Big Tech with ownership for BOTH system design and delivery? Some context: I am currently a IC responsible for architecture and design, but delivery is driven and supported by Managers only if I get it politically right. Not so long ago, I have been in roles in leading engineers and delivering software, so wondering why not look for roles which puts me in a position to use both my skills (system design, support delivery, support people ) ? #microsoft #amazon #google #facebook #netflix #shopify #salesforce #tech
Come work at Microsoft WebXT if you want to wear all the hats and be blamed and shot in the foot at every turn alongside long hours, weekends and more. Personally do not recommend WebXT at Microsoft, do a Blind search if curious.
Thanks- I will stay away from WebXT, not really looking to wear all hats. Does Engineering Managers in Microsoft own design/architecture of the systems that they support?
I can't speak for all of MSFT, my slavedriver EM just sits back and promotes himself. No clearing blockers or anything either, off at 3 🥰
every software development engineer in amazon is expected to design (at the scope appropriate for their level - jr SDEs are not expected to design systems, just individual components, but they usually do anyway). people-management and hands-on coding are almost never done by the same person at amazon tho. it's pretty similar in the rest of the big shops as far as i know
Definitely not expecting managers to do coding. But trying to understand what ownership/involvement does SDM's in Amazon are expected to take when it comes to design/architecture of systems/products that they support? Is it just tech leads/architects providing an FYI on final design and SDM drives it to delivery ?
it varies a lot. if a team has an SDM with a stronger technical background, like an SDE recently converted to SDM, then the SDM will typically do high-level technical design and disambiguation when projects are ramping up, and be heavily involved in reviewing and giving feedback on team initiatives that affect design/architecture. in teams with SDMs with less engineering background (or when it's been much longer since they were engineers), the SDM will mostly set up process and facilitate discussions with the right stakeholders to make sure that decisions on design/architecture are aligned across the organization, but will usually not provide guidance directly. tech leads are always involved, and really any individual project's tech lead (which applies to EVERYONE, everyone should lead something at some scope) even if it's not the most prominent engineer in a team. SDMs turn those plans into roadmaps, make sure the work is diced up into chunks that can be delivered incrementally and done by multiple people if applicable, and make sure that any dependencies for the project are satisfied. if it sounds like useless politics that doesn't add value... well, yeah, that's what it is. but having someone take care of politics helps engineers keep focus on the actual work, without a bunch of other leaders derailing plans with constant requests for changes in priorities. it's as miserable as it sounds.