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Worth reading
A short take on pieces worth your time — architecture, AI, system design, and engineering careers — each one linked back to its original source.
3 articles
What Is a Forward Deployed Engineer? Role, Skills, Salary & Career Roadmap
Forward-deployed engineering — embedding directly with a customer to scope, build, and ship production software inside their environment, part engineer and part consultant — has become one of tech's fastest-growing, highest-leverage roles. This piece lays out what the job actually involves day to day, the "T-shaped" skill profile it rewards (deep in one area, broad everywhere else, strong with people), and a realistic preparation path if you're coming from a standard engineering background.
Career paths for software engineers at large tech companies
Ethan Evans, a former Amazon VP, writing for Gergely Orosz's Pragmatic Engineer, on the actual paths available once you're a handful of years into a big-tech career, IC, management, and the several flavors in between, with the kind of specific, level-by-level detail that generic "career ladder" documentation never gives you. I recommend this to anyone who feels like they're supposed to have a five-year plan but nobody's ever explained what the actual forks in the road look like. A good companion piece to the Staff+ Engineer article already on this list.
What is a Staff+ Engineer?
Gergely Orosz, writing for The Pragmatic Engineer, drawing on Nicky Wrightson's (a former principal engineer) account of what actually changes when you move from senior engineer to staff+: less about writing more code, more about picking the right problems, being trusted with ambiguity, and, as the title says, becoming a role model whether you signed up for that or not. I recommend this to anyone plotting a technical (not management) career path who's tired of vague leveling-guide language and wants the real texture of the job. Refreshingly specific about the frustrating parts too, not just the flattering ones.