Staff engineers are equivalent levels to managers, usually you have to get staff before switching over to management.
That doesn’t mean they have directs though. The recruiter shouldn’t have said that.
Staff engineers manage people when they are expected to transition to a manager role over a defined period of time. At LinkedIn a person must already be at Staff Level before making the switch to manager
What is the terminal level at LinkedIn?
Staff
Tech Industry
Yesterday
4948
I took a stand and got terminated lol
India
7h
528
Is it just me but given the history with British in India
World Conflicts
Yesterday
800
Muslims who immigrate to USA and then protest Zionism are hypocrites
Tech Industry
Yesterday
1890
😞 Girlfriend help! 😞
Working Parents
Yesterday
1147
Question for Asian Parents
No, they're ICs.
The recruiter said staff engineers are also first line managers. And seniors are tech leads. Talk about pulling a Bill Clinton.
What the recruiter means is that they're at equal levels in the ladder. It doesn't mean they actually do management per se.