What exactly is a Tech Lead?
Anemari Fiser
Helping techies level up in their careers by developing their non-tech skills | Engineering Leader & Certified Career Coach | Country Director GWTL | ex-Thoughtworks
“Ask 3 Tech Leads about their role and you might hear 3 different answers.
Working with Tech Leads from different companies, I noticed that the expectations on the Tech Lead role differ from company to company but they all agree on some things: the Tech Lead is a person with technical expertise responsible for leading a team and alignment on the technical direction.
This puts Tech Leads right at the intersection between people, tech and business.
The difference comes from what area Tech Leads focus more on.
Based on this, there are different types of Tech Leads:
“The Tech Lead is the most technical person in the team”
This is the most encountered path for becoming a Tech Lead: a software engineer that gets to have the most knowledge about the technologies and the system of the team gets promoted to the Tech Lead role.
I personally don’t like this strategy because it puts a lot of pressure on the Tech Lead: a person that was until now only focused on tech and individual contribution is put in a position of leading people and ensuring alignment and they are expected to do this transition seamlessly.
People need support in making this transition, if not they will continue focusing on what they feel more comfortable with: coding, and ignoring the rest.
?? Continued....
You can find the other two types of Tech Leads here: https://open.substack.com/pub/anemarifiser/p/what-exactly-is-a-tech-lead?r=1s7s2w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web ??
Head of Technology | Bridging Technology & Commercial Requirements to Deliver High-Impact Solutions
8 个月A good visual representation of the role
Visionary Frontend Tech Lead | React.js Expert | Clean Code Advocate | Passionate about Innovation and User Experience | Empowering Teams to Excel
1 年Anemari, this is a great post! It's so important to recognize that there are different types of Tech Leads, and that they are all valuable. Thank you for sharing your insights! ??
An Expat Writer in Great Britain | Handwritten Impact | Journaling and Fountain Pen I HR Professional at Burnham Grammar School I Maximizing Wellbeing
1 年Great share Anemari Fiser It shows you value the balance ????
Senior Software Engineer at Microsoft | ex-Expedia (Seattle) | M.S. in Computer Science (IU Bloomington, US)
1 年This is gold Anemari Fiser! As one grows in their career, apart from the technical chops, the ability to draw consensus among equally skilled peers, ability to inspire a motivated set of individuals, ability to understand business requirements and returns on investments, etc. play a critical role in career sustainability/progression.
Tech Lead - Infotainment
1 年Being a Tech Lead is super close to the team, which makes it pretty tough, especially dealing with people stuff. And when what the org wants doesn't vibe with what the role is all about, it gets even trickier.