FWIW, I'm looking for someone to lead all engineering efforts wrt to "everything analytics": - what to measure and where to measure (EDIT: meaning "which actions, e.g. clicks, constitute the start of a specific action? How can we determine that a user stopped for break? etc... more details below!) - which tools to use - how to integrate libraries/services - where to store data - how to access raw data - how to process raw data - how to access processed information
... at a 10-15 person (six developers) Startup.
EDIT: To answer the questions below and specify the role: we're in EdTech, so the data we want to gather is used to 1) give users an overview of and feedback about their activity, 2) create effective and evidence-based interventions, and 3) improve learning outcomes and engagement. More detailed objectives are determined by management and research roles, but they still need to be translated into code – almost like a restaurant owner can tell a chef to make a specific dish, but the chef still needs to know which pan to use.
In my experience, what and where to measure should be led by your business folks. The rest of the responsibilities could probably be handled by a data engineer.
I guess my word of warning is that I don't think you'll find someone with three areas of expertise
1) understanding your business / industry at a level deep enough to know what to measure.
2) having the core statistics and analytic capabilities to work with someone in category 1) to get insights out of the data.
3) having a deep understanding of databases and engineering pipelines to make functional and reliable data infrastructure that allow folks in 2) to be good at their job.
If you are starting a new analytics department, I would be looking for an existing person at the company to take responsibility for 1) and look for a great candidate in 3) who has worked closely with others in 2).
Another way is to take a look around LinkedIn and see what titles other companies are doing (especially ones in the same talent market as you). Look both in the titles of current/past employees and in the job postings themselves.
You might also want to read The Informed Company by Fowler & David, which does a good job starting with a very simple setup and walking through how and when and what to add on - the folks you're looking for are in high demand, and if you don't find someone quickly, the book might give you enough to help your junior devs make reasonable choices for where you are now.
God-Emperor of code? Alright.
Artifex maximus programmanorum? You do you buddy.
Most people just chose "senior developer".
[1] https://www.aonhumancapital.com.au/getmedia/9b5d9f13-294f-46...
in my experience it is still too early in the game to thin slice roles like this.
It makes sense to have broad buckets like:
- mobile (ios, android)
- frontend / backend (web or fullstack)
- SRE
- Security and compliance
- AI / machine learning
Or to put it another way, whats the criteria for success. More sales? Faster development, less downtime?
No, there isn't.
What you're describing could be called a lead data engineer but you can also call them a lead software engineer if you don't want to distinguish between data and non-data engineers with the title. But the "what to measure" and "where to measure" parts don't really fit under it - that's more like a data analyst or someone in a business role (depending on what you're measuring and how important/advanced it is), or a data scientist... but then not every part of the job needs to be reflected in the title.
Basically there are many different ways to set up the titles, and most of them are fine.
You'll be rich if you find one. Most companies can't even keep a decent list as the reality varies from team to team.
I'd be happy to help you narrow down a job title / job description that would help you recruit for your role. Email in profile.
1. Junior SE: Typically not responsible for anything. Expected to be a cost-sink for a bit but will ideally not spend long in this position and advance to whatever the next position is. Usually someone fresh out of school or new to the sub-field.
2. Software Engineer: This title can be an alternate title for Junior, and it can have several ranks inside of it (1-3 in order of experience). This person typically has 0-N years of experience where N is determined by industry. In start ups you see people not spend long here. In more established companies people can spend quite a few years here.
3. Senior Software Engineer: One of the only consistent titles in the industry. Always comes after Software Engineer. This person has experience and is typically responsible for maintaining a single code base, mild planning tasks, and sometimes overseeing 1-2 software engineers/juniors. In more established companies SSE has tiers, with the final tier having responsibility approximately on par with the next rank.
4. Lead Software Engineer: Some companies use this to refer to a final-tier senior.
[At this point the tree bifurcates]
5. Staff Software Engineer: This is an IC track "management" position. Less code contribution, more high level planning and architecture. Will typically oversee a few senior engineers but this is not required. Typically "do-ers" fall into this position and have 7-10 years of experience.
5a. Director/Junior Director/Manager: All of these titles can mean the same or different things and it REALLY depends on the company. At any rate, the "L-equal" title to staff is a people position that specializes in management of engineers.
6. Senior Staff Engineer: Usually awarded late in the staff engineer career path. Either represents the top tier of staff engineer, or as a special "preparation" tier for principal. Roles for principal and senior staff are similar but senior staff will have less expectation.
7. Principal Engineer: In some companies this replaces staff, and principal gets tiers. Generally principals are responsible for staff duties (see 5), but as they advance further in the tiers they become closer to R&D. Typically responsible for engineer oversight and code culture, spiking new services, planning, architecture, etc. The jobs can vary dramatically by company.
After this titles can vary wildly and it wouldn't be possible to nail down exact traits. You typically will have either research engineer, resident engineer, or another very important very small title coming after this.
In the event of data jobs typically engineering jobs are given an extra "data" in front of them. Data engineers (just add Data in front of 1-6 with the exception of people management) have additional responsibilities that involve dev-opsy infrastructure work as well as building pipelines. Usually data engineering positions require more in depth backend knowledge and can be performance critical positions (in contrast "regular" SE positions can be performance critical but typically are not as critical except in special cases).