This is the second part in a series expanding on the conference talks I have given this year about the path to Staff Engineer and beyond. In the first part, I discussed what Staff Engineer really means and how it differs from management.
One of the hardest shifts on the path from senior engineer to staff engineer is learning that your job is no longer just to solve problems. At the senior level, that is what you are valued for. You take on hard work, you ship, and you do it well. But at Staff, that is only part of the job.
The real work is learning to find the right problems to solve.
The Difference Between Solving and Finding
Senior engineers are often measured by how quickly they can take a defined task and make it happen. At that stage, success is about execution. The faster you can move tickets from “in progress” to “done,” the better.
Staff engineers, on the other hand, are expected to step back and look at the system as a whole. They spend less time in the ticket queue and more time asking questions like:
- Why are we solving this problem in the first place?
- What is the cost of not solving it?
- Are there bigger or more systemic issues hiding underneath this one?
The goal is not to stop solving problems, but to start shaping which problems are worth attention. That is how you move from individual impact to organizational impact.
The Firefighter Trap
Many engineers fall into the firefighting trap. You become the person who can fix anything, and people know it. When a system breaks, you are the one everyone calls. It feels good, and you get recognized for it.
The problem is that firefighting keeps you busy, but it does not move the system forward. You are reacting to symptoms instead of addressing causes. At Staff level, your value comes from preventing fires, not putting them out.
The engineers who grow fastest are the ones who learn to delegate short-term fixes and focus on finding the long-term problems worth solving.
How to Start Finding Problems
Becoming a problem finder is not about being critical. It is about being curious. It is about building the context to see what others miss.
A few ways to start:
- Look for repeated friction. If a process or system keeps tripping people up, the root cause is probably deeper than it looks.
- Talk to people outside your immediate team. The best insights often come from support, operations, or security. They see the rough edges every day.
- Question your defaults. Ask why your team does things the way it does. The answer might be “because we always have,” which is rarely good enough.
- Think in systems. A problem in one team often starts upstream. Trace it back and see where it really begins.
- Stay close to the business. Understand what actually matters to your customers or to the company. The best engineers tie technical work directly to outcomes.
The Shift in Mindset
The real shift at Staff level is learning to focus on what actually matters. It is not about fixing more things or planning further ahead. It is about understanding which problems will move the needle for your team or your company.
You stop asking, “What can I fix today?” and start asking, “What is the work that will make everything else easier or unnecessary?”
That might mean improving the developer experience so every engineer ships faster. It might mean reducing risk in a critical system, or clarifying ownership so teams stop blocking each other. The specifics change, but the pattern is the same: your impact scales when you focus on leverage, not volume.
Staff engineers create alignment around the problems that matter most. They look past the noise, pick the work that truly changes outcomes, and make sure it gets done.
That is what separates a great senior engineer from a true Staff engineer.
The Takeaway
You do not reach Staff by being the fastest person to close tickets. You reach it by becoming the person who decides which tickets exist in the first place.
Next time, I will cover how to build the toolkit that makes this possible: deep technical expertise, strong communication, business understanding, and prioritization.
This post is adapted from my talk, “The Path to Staff Engineer and Beyond”, delivered at PSU Mac Admins 2025 and MacDevOps YVR 2025. It is part of a series exploring the journey from senior engineer to staff and beyond.