How to Scale Your Impact at the Staff-Plus Level

Introduction

In this article, I’ll try to demystify what “Staff-Plus” expectations actually look like, drawing on real promotion and performance reviews experiences.

• First, we’ll map out the career ladders (and their hidden gaps) so you can see exactly where you stand and what Staff-Plus means in practice.
• Then, we’ll dig into promotion patterns and the key behaviors that consistently help high-performing engineers to reinvent themselves and scale beyond Staff-Plus.
• Finally, I’ll introduce the concept of “staff projects”, an actionable way to bridge the gap between the sometimes-opaque expectations on the ladder and the real, day-to-day actions top performers use to drive their careers forward.

Career Ladders: Beyond Titles and Levels

The introduction of dual-track career ladders about two decades ago – adding Staff, Senior Staff, and Principal levels – allowed engineers to progress as ICs without moving into management. This was revolutionary, though titles, levels, and responsibilities still vary significantly across companies; what one organization calls a “Staff Engineer”, another might label “Principal” or even “Senior”.

Equivalence Between IC & Management Scope

A common misconception is that advancing on the IC track simply involves deeper technical skills. In reality, progressing to Staff or beyond involves scope comparable to managers or directors. The difference lies in how you lead – through technical strategy, mentorship, and influence without formal authority – rather than organizational size or direct reports.

What got you here, Won’t get you there

Many people assume that going from senior to staff is just “more of the same” plus a few extra skills. In reality, it’s often as big of a jump as moving to management. You go from being a senior engineer to being, effectively, a junior staff engineer. You must learn new ways to delegate, scale your vision, and influence multiple teams.

Hidden Lateral Growth

Career ladders don’t always reflect lateral growth. Senior engineers sometimes move sideways – switching tech stacks, temporarily stepping into management, or leading teams informally – without title changes. These lateral moves build essential skills, creating a stronger foundation that can later help them “leap” to staff.

Pace of Progression

At higher levels, career progression slows notably. Moving from Staff to Senior Staff or Principal often takes years, and fewer roles are available. Many engineers remain at the Senior level comfortably for extended periods, exploring lateral roles or new responsibilities and still finding deep career satisfaction.

Staff-Plus Expectations Across Companies

To clarify what Staff-Plus really means, I’ve isolated three universal expectations I’ve found to be true across companies based on my experience as a Director over the last 5 years. They are the things that Directors, VPs and above expect from someone whenever they see “Staff-Plus IC” in their title.

1. Blast Radius (Scope & Shape of Impact)

Staff-Plus is about broad and/or deep organizational impact – your “blast radius”. Instead of focusing solely on narrower code or single-team tasks, you tackle challenges that affect multiple squads, entire product lines, or key company priorities. Technical depth still matters, but if you can’t scale your influence across the org, your overall impact remains limited.

Your “Blast radius” can be broad – like introducing a new platform library used by dozens of teams – or deep, completely reshaping how a critical product operates. Either way, the result should produce tangible outcomes for the business, such as improved revenues, lowered costs, or streamlined processes across the company.

2. Multi-Scale Planning (Strategic Time-Horizon)

As you move up, you need to see – and influence – the future. Staff-Plus Engineers must handle planning across multiple time horizons – from immediate tasks to quarterly or yearly roadmaps – and influence decisions at each level. This “horizon of focus” grows as you climb from staff to senior staff to principal, paralleling how managers or directors plan more strategically and generally for a longer horizon of time.

This often means seeing around corners for upcoming needs, risk areas, upcoming infrastructure bottlenecks, dependencies, or potential innovations and then aligning with stakeholders months, quarters or even years in advance.

3. Ownership & Autonomy Level (Implementer → Solver → Finder → Driver)

In early career stages, you’re typically an Implementer – someone hands you both the problem and the solution and you implement it. As a Senior, you’re a Solver – you are given a problem and it is expected to figure out the solution yourself.

Staff-Plus demands going beyond that: become a Finder, proactively spotting important issues, risks, and opportunities that nobody else is working on yet. Even more, the best staff-plus engineers also act as Drivers, not just finding a problem, but orchestrating the entire lifecycle and deep diving themselves whenever needed – ensuring blockers get removed and major company priorities actually get delivered week after week.

Promotion Patterns at Staff-Plus Level

Behavior matters because promotions and hiring decisions revolve around demonstrable achievements, not just potential. Promotions at this level hinge on consistent, demonstrated evidence.

From over 50 promotion committees I’ve been part of since 2019, the same patterns show up again and again – I’ve identified the Top 3 high-performing behaviors behind successful promotions – and the Top 3 most common patterns that stalled or blocked them.

High-Performing Behaviors

1. Strategic Alignment & Ownership: They tie technical decisions to business goals, align early with stakeholders, and proactively de-risk.
2. Mentorship & Sponsorship: They scale through others – sharing knowledge, delegating well, and building a culture of ownership instead of playing the hero.
3. Technical Judgment & Execution Excellence: They combine deep expertise with high standards for quality and reliability, driving meaningful improvements and adopting new tech when it adds real value.

Blocking Behaviors

1. Lack of Strategic Vision: They focused on impressive tech that lacked business relevance or strategic alignment.
2. Inability to Delegate & Scale: They micromanaged or hoarded ownership, resisting others’ ideas and over-investing in their own solutions.
3. Poor Stakeholder Communication: They under-communicated, avoided escalation, reacted poorly to conflict, and struggled to build trust or partnerships.

Staff Projects

Will Larson popularized the term “Staff Projects” in his book Staff Engineer, describing them as multi-stakeholder, high-complexity & high-impact initiatives that test your ability to plan, influence, execute, and deliver at scale. A Staff Project typically includes three traits:

1. Complex and Ambiguous – Many moving parts, unclear scope, or uncharted territory.
2. Numerous and Divided Stakeholders – Multiple teams or departments, each with its own priorities and perspectives.
3. A Named Bet – High-visibility effort – if it succeeds, it shapes the company’s future; if it fails, the impact is widely felt.

In this book, Larson emphasizes that delivering at least one Staff Project is often seen as essential evidence for promotion into Staff-Plus levels, clearly demonstrating company-wide impact led by an IC.

But, Why “Staff Projects” Matter?

For our context here, Staff projects are the glue! They are our engine of career growth. They are the practical engine behind career growth at Staff-Plus levels, bridging abstract expectations and promotable behaviors. They kickstart the “career flywheel”, making subsequent growth easier and increasingly impactful.

Taking on a Staff Project forces you into a higher-altitude: you can’t just solve what’s handed to you or wait for direction. You have to find the problem in the first place, then drive it end-to-end. These projects clearly highlight the high-performing behaviors (strategic decision-making, mentorship, technical excellence) and can help you identify and address your “blocking patterns” (lack of vision, inability to delegate, poor communication).

Connecting the Dots: Staff-Plus Expectations and High-Performing Behaviors

Recall the three Staff-Plus Expectations – (1) high blast radius, (2) multi-scale planning, and (3) high ownership & autonomy – and the High-Performing Behaviors – (1) strategic alignment, (2) technical excellence, and (3) leadership/mentorship.

A true Staff Project hits all those notes:

• High Blast Radius: Tackles a problem that matters deeply to the business. Failure or success resonates well beyond one team.
• Multi-Scale Planning: Demands long-range planning, stakeholder alignment, and the ability to see around corners – not just coding.
• High Ownership & Autonomy: Lets you flex that Finder/Driver mode (and Solver/Implementer if necessary). You’re not waiting for a green light; you’re discovering and championing crucial work, then ensuring it actually happens.

Delivering a Staff Project naturally showcases the behaviors that promotion committees look for: you’re making strategic calls, inspiring and mentoring others to pull it off, and driving technical innovation that materially impacts the company.

Example: Real-Time Analytics Rollout

Let’s illustrate with a real-world scenario: A staff engineer on my team recently led a complex initiative to implement a real-time analytics platform, selecting Apache Pinot as the core technology.

Why is this project Staff-level?

• Complex and Ambiguous: Transitioning from daily batch processing to real-time analytics isn’t just a technical change – it fundamentally reshapes our analytics workflow, introducing significant complexity.
• Divided Stakeholders: Data engineering, product analytics, and executive teams each had different priorities, metrics, and concerns about accuracy and performance, requiring continuous alignment and careful stakeholder management.
• Meaningful Business Impact: Success drastically reduces data-to-action delays, enabling faster decisions, deeper user insights, and potentially unlocking new revenue opportunities. Failure would mean wasted resources and diminished trust in future strategic initiatives.

Behaviorally, this project demanded cross-team collaboration and influential communication, sharpening the engineer’s skills in strategic planning, conflict resolution, and stakeholder engagement. It created exactly the kind of environment where Staff-Plus engineers thrive and grow.

Put It in Writing

One of the easiest ways to ensure your Staff Project stays front and center is to formalize it with your manager. How? Write it down as part of your half-year or annual expectations.

Include:

1. The Staff Project – Describe the big bet, the stakeholders, why it matters, and what success looks like.
2. Other High-Leverage Deliverables – Not every project can be a Staff Project, so also list core improvements or migrations you’re responsible for.
3. Key Skill Growth Areas – Identify critical gaps – soft skills like conflict resolution or technical breadth in a new stack – and link them directly to your Staff Project.

One key reason many engineers get surprised and frustrated on performance reviews is due to the lack of written clarity. If you and your manager never document your high-impact project or the behaviors you need to practice, this is very easy to fix, but of course requires some effort till it becomes a habit.

So, here is what you have to do: Each half-year (or annually at least) push yourself to write down your own expectations to share with your manager on your next 1;1, be sure to include at least one Staff-level project and one Skill to Develop. Even if you’re already at Staff or Senior Staff, you still need to prove ongoing, cross-cutting influence and impact and writing it down is a great one to evidence that.

Putting it down on paper not only clarifies where to invest your energy but also makes it easier to recalibrate if business priorities change mid-cycle. Try to revisit and update it every other month on your 1:1s with your manager.

The Staff Project Flywheel

The “Staff Project Flywheel” is an iterative loop where each initiative builds on previous growth, continuously expanding your impact and influence at the Staff-Plus level. Each cycle involves:

1. Identify a High-Value Problem (Finder): Spot critical organizational constraints – like data-processing delays affecting decision-making – and propose impactful solutions (e.g., transitioning to real-time streaming analytics).
2. Create Buy-In (Strategic Influence & Multi-Scale Planning): Align with engineering leaders, stakeholders, and peers. Demonstrate clear ROI, navigate concerns around infrastructure, security, and budgets, and sharpen your cross-functional communication skills.
3. Coordinate and Delegate (Driver): Lead across teams by setting clear milestones, orchestrating multiple squads, mentoring engineers, and ensuring the broader organization aligns on the shared goal.
4. Deliver, Quantify & Publish Outcomes (High Blast Radius): Implement your solution and clearly measure its business impact. Actively share results through company-wide meetings, performance reviews, internal forums, or external presentations to maximize visibility.
5. Document and Reflect (Iteration): After completion, document your successes and challenges, highlighting new skills learned. Reflecting helps identify areas for improvement, fueling your next Staff Project and continuing the cycle.

Repeatedly executing this flywheel boosts your visibility, influence, and ability to tackle increasingly complex challenges, driving sustained growth at the Staff-Plus level.

Avoid Surprises: Calibrate Early and Often

Writing your project down is just the first step. To avoid surprises, align closely with your manager on what truly constitutes “Staff-level” work. At Nubank, we call this “Expectations Calibration“.

Once documented, proactively share your expectations with senior peers, trusted mentors, and key stakeholders. While you don’t explicitly ask stakeholders if the project guarantees promotion, clarity with your manager and senior peers is essential – they’ll advocate for you in promotion discussions.

Establish monthly or quarterly checkpoints to review project progress with your manager. Use a simple “green/yellow/red” assessment to easily recalibrate as business priorities or organizational contexts shift, ensuring your project remains impactful and aligned.

The Bottom Line

Staff Projects are your most concrete vehicle for demonstrating Staff-Plus impact. By choosing high-blast-radius initiatives requiring strategic thinking, multi-scale influence, and end-to-end ownership, you clearly showcase your ability to operate at the next level.

When you consistently:

• Document expectations clearly,
• Align upfront with your manager and key stakeholders,
• Regularly revisit and recalibrate your progress,

you create a repeatable growth engine – a flywheel – where each successful Staff Project feeds the next, expanding your credibility, skills, visibility, and organizational influence.

If your goal is to break through or stay comfortably above the Staff ceiling, continuously pursue these high-stakes projects. Write them down, calibrate them openly, deliver consistently, and your impact at the Staff-Plus level will be undeniable.

Scaling Impact at the Staff-Plus Level

As you climb higher, positions become fewer, promotions take longer, and chasing the title alone can backfire. Instead, focus on growing your impact in a sustainable way, this means delegating effectively, fostering a strong team culture, and broadening your influence horizontally – first with peers, then cross-functionally, and eventually with senior leaders.

Align closely with organizational goals, embrace mentorship, engage in cross-functional problem-solving, and proactively uncover critical problems to solve. Consistently demonstrate broad impact, strategic planning across multiple horizons, and full ownership of high-stakes projects – from conception through rollout and adoption.

• Look to Role Models, Not Checklists: Learn directly from promotion stories and role models within your company rather than relying solely on external benchmarks.
• Address Your Single Biggest Limiting Behavior: Prioritize improving your weakest skill, whether delegation, conflict resolution, or stakeholder communication.
• Continuously Recalibrate: Regularly revisit your goals and Staff Projects, updating them promptly when organizational priorities shift.

Remember:

“The best time to define your Staff Project was at the beginning of the performance cycle; the second-best time is right now”.

If you haven’t yet documented your annual expectations – including your Staff Project, skill growth areas, and mentorship or leadership plans – start now. There’s still time to shape your outcomes this year.

This article is based on the talk “Breaking the Ceiling: Scaling Your Impact at the Staff-Plus Level” at InfoQ Dev Summit Boston 2024.