Ask HN: Director of Technology or Principle Software Engineer? • Hacker News Board

Post by bodytitle » Sat, Oct 23, 2010, 3:14 PM UTC

So here is the deal. Yesterday one of the partners who owns the startup I work at had a quick conversation about my future with the company. I was the initial developer hire with the startup (we more than doubled in size the last three years) and I built out a team of developers and other tech people to keep things moving. Now they have an opportunity to bring in a "ringer" (someone who has managed tech teams at this stage of business) but they also want to keep me happy.

My impression is that I could push either way. I could work to continue managing the company's technology and team or, as an alternative, I could become something like a principle software engineer and take on the task of figuring out where our platform is going while giving up day to day work on protecting the company's existing $20 million cash flow and managing the team.

There are pros and cons to both but I was curious what other folks thought. I'm still one of the better developers on the team and I know the most about our platform. In theory I could add more value to the company by leveraging my knowledge to help bring together a new data warehouse, a cloud platform, a facebook app, a mobile app, etc.

On the other hand I like managing folks, everyone was hired to work with me, I feel challenge learning about running the business, and, while I don't get to code as much this way, I still bring a lot of value on that end. I'm also worried that I'm giving up something for my future career if my title changes at this stage in the game.

So my general questions: - Are my fears founded? - How would I carve out the role in such a way that I'm not just a member of the dev team working under a new manager? - Do other firms have roles like this? How effective are they (for the person and the company)?

Post by deskamess » Sat, Oct 23, 2010, 4:11 PM UTC

Need some clarification... if your impression is that you could continue to manage the company's technology and team, what would be the purpose/title of the ringer?

A title of Director of Technology should not worry you at all. To the majority of the companies it is a managerial level title and can be used to move to higher management level titles/responsibilities. In this case it is also responsible for protecting revenues, etc.

The Principle/Principal Engineer is usually given out to someone who has advanced the field in their discipline. The title progression usually goes to Distinguished Engineer/Scientist after that. I am not sure how often a Principal Engineer gets to switch to the management path.

So, given your liking of management, I would go with the Director Of Technology.