Senior Software Engineer

One thing I've noticed throughout my career that's been pretty consistent is the desire of software engineers to be given the title Senior Software Engineer. I've seen many people claim the title without truly understanding what it means or what the role entails.

The Misnomer

Often I've seen people given the title or claim the title based on the number of years of experience they have or based on the fact that they have more technical chops than their peers. Being a senior software engineer doesn't have anything to do with years of experience, but instead is about maturity as an engineer. While the two may be correlated (highly so in many cases) there is not a causation relationship. I've seen just as many tenured developers who were no more senior than their counterparts fresh out of college. It's also not only about your technical ability (while that is a large part).

If years of experience don't define a senior engineer and being the most technical person doesn't then what does? In my opinion a senior engineer is someone who manifests most, if not all, of the following characteristics.

Language/Platform Agnostic

A senior software engineer may have language or platform preferences but they're able to deliver on any platform. This is because they understand system metaphors, abstractions, and compositions well enough to know how to learn what they don't know quickly. They identify the correct metaphors, abstractions, and compositions needed to be successful and realize that the syntax and libraries are just implementation details.  

Able to identify and articulate trade-offs

Building software is always about trade-offs. They are able to take schedule and scope into account when building a solution. They understand and are able to clearly articulate risks. For example, a senior engineer knows that with a fixed schedule scope must be variable. They're able to identify and clearly articulate what the proper scope is and what features are at risk.

They're about shipping software

First and foremost, a senior software engineer is able to deliver software. They deliver software in large volumes. This is largely to do with their ability to understand and quickly get through boilerplate code in order to focus on the real problems. They understand that unshipped software isn't making the business better.

Able to get people to want to follow them

Solving complex and ambiguous problems is a requirement of being a senior software engineer. But being able to solve those problems isn't sufficient for the title. A senior software engineer is able to successfully lead a team. They're able to motivate people to solve a problem, hold people accountable to solving the right problem, and get down to the level of other less experienced developers in order to stretch them and help them achieve goals that are beyond their current abilities. 

Able to simplify a complex problem

Senior software engineers are able to see through complex problems and break them down into smaller, easier to solve, problems.

Understand the correct amount of engineering required to solve the problem

Senior engineers don't over engineer solutions and likewise they don't under engineer solutions. They understand that software is meant to solve a particular set of problems while needing to stay maintainable in order to increase the lifespan and usefulness of the product. They recognize that the elegant solution is not always the correct solution. They also have the ability to take a complex problem and identify the potentially fragile portions of a solution and design around them without over generalizing a solution or making the solution less useful in solving the problem at hand.

They recognize that everything doesn't have to be "built here"

This one is pretty straight forward but difficult in practice. Senior engineers recognize when a particular problem is not part of the groups core competencies and look for external solutions. While a particular problem may be interesting, unique, or fun a senior software engineer is able to recognize when solving that problem in house doesn't add any business value or add burdensome tech debt.