Speaker
Abstract
Ever heard “you’re a great engineer/manager, but to get to the next level, you need to focus on the big picture and your business impact”? Early on in our careers, we focus on technical depth and excellence. Yet for most of us, our career stalls around limited opportunities to demonstrate strategic thinking and business impact, not a lack of technical depth.
This talk will focus on practical strategies and examples for getting invited to the big conversations where strategic decisions are made and projects are assigned. You’ll learn how to be the default choice across the company to represent engineering on specific topics, how to demonstrate you’re capable of taking the next step in your career when it isn’t technical skill holding you back and how to share these skills with others to build a strong product-focused company.
Key takeaways:
- How to identify topics of high strategic importance your peers and team aren’t aware of.
- How to become recognised as a topic expert within the business on non-technical and partially technical things.
- How to make sure when you do get in the room, you’re invited back a second time. And then are chosen to lead the projects and teams you really want to lead.
Topics
QCon London 2025 is a three day conference for senior software engineers, architects and team leads. An international program committee of working engineers selects every session. Patterns and practices, not products and pitches.
Part of the track
The Path to Senior Engineering Leadership Hosted by Leandro Guimarães Senior Engineering Manager @ClassPass, former Chair of QCon in BrazilFrom the same track
Monday 7 April
10:35 Whittle (3rd Fl.) Session leadership The Principal Engineer’s Path: Skills, Strategies, and Lessons Learned Sophie Weston Principal Engineer @ClearBank, Co-Organizer of DevOpsDays London & FastFlowConf In many organizations, the role of Principal Engineer is considered the highest level of the ‘individual contributor’ career path. But careers aren’t like ladders—short, straight, and evenly spaced. Instead, they’re long, winding, and often challenging journeys. 11:45 Fleming (3rd Fl.) Session career growth How to Always Get Invited to Big Strategic Conversations Mark Allen Engineering Leader and Technical Co-Founder, Over 10 Years Experience Growing Managers and Senior Engineers Ever heard “you’re a great engineer/manager, but to get to the next level, you need to focus on the big picture and your business impact”? Early on in our careers, we focus on technical depth and excellence. 13:35 Fleming (3rd Fl.) Session software engineering Changing Power Dynamics: What Senior Engineers Can Learn From Junior Engineers Beth Anderson Principal Software Engineer @BBC Digital Distribution In many engineering teams, senior engineers make the decisions and are responsible for mentoring and teaching junior team members. This rigid hierarchical dynamic can stifle innovation, discourage fresh perspectives, and create barriers to collaboration. How can we change this? 14:45 Rutherford (4th Fl.) Unconference Unconference: The Path to Senior Engineering Leadership 15:55 Fleming (3rd Fl.) Session Engineering Management Scaling to 100+ as a Director: Lessons From Growing Engineering Organizations Thiago Ghisi Director of Engineering @Nubank & Co-Host of @EngAdvicePod, Previously @Apple & @ThoughtWorks When I took on the Director of Engineering role at Nubank, I had no idea just how many times I’d need to reinvent my leadership style. 17:05 Whittle (3rd Fl.) Session engineering leadership Shine Bright as an IC: Growing Yourself As Your Company Grows Suhail Patel Senior Staff Engineer @Monzo Leading the Platform and Data Functions, Previously @Citymapper Being part of a growing company is a fantastic opportunity to level yourself as an individual very rapidly, if you choose to grasp it. You've already immersed yourself with context and you might be the go to person for a key area of the organization.