Yet, in other organizations, both names might refer to a single role. Let’s fight some common misconceptions about a key member in the software development team. The Senior Developer is the one that will get the hard unsolvable tasks that arise during the completion of a project and their job is to find solutions to fix them. Their role often requires a large amount of time spent coding and working with other team members.
The two will most likely collaborate closely on the technical roadmap. The tech lead, because they spend so much time in the codebase, will be able to explain what debt needs to be addressed and how, and the engineering manager will translate that into a priority to be communicated to leadership. The tech lead spends less time on the “why” and prioritization. The technical lead (or tech lead) is a common role at software companies.
This model works well with small teams or less complex systems. As a team grows in size or system grows in complexity, the Tech Lead has less time to focus on both areas. A Tech Lead in this context implicitly prioritises one focus area over another. From my personal experience, they usually prioritise technical topics to the detriment of people or team topics. A Tech Lead, as you might expect, is primarily focused on leading the technology within the team. They are very technically experienced, having worked across lots of systems and projects, and have become the oracles for systems and technologies.
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Since tech leads are considered to be both technical experts and competent supervisors, you’ll need a decent amount of experience first. Unlike developers on the People Path who have an internal-focused perspective (i.e., focused on their squads and individual reports), Technical Leads are individual contributors with internal and external-oriented responsibilities. Internally, they lead and contribute to projects and initiatives while simultaneously creating resources and activities for the benefit of not only the engineering team but also the development communities.
As a result, an engineering team cannot rest on its laurels if it aims at delivering high-quality software and an efficient work environment for developers. Over time, Technical Leads might accumulate more than one core specialization or change their focused area of expertise altogether. Since software development is constantly evolving and developers — at any seniority level — seek novelty, it is common for some developers to move from one area or programming language to another.
We’ll start by explaining why the confusion exists in the first place. After that, we’ll cover each of the terms, in turn, starting with tech lead. Before wrapping up by sharing some final thoughts, we present our verdict. Our Web Development Bootcamp is a great first step that you can take to establish the essential hard and soft skills needed to form a strong foundation in web development that you can build on with professional experience.
The Tech Lead – Chapter 1
Since Technical Leads have a focused expertise area, aiming to be an expert in the latter, they are in a position to have an impact beyond the engineering team at Nimble. Instead of reaching tens of developers, they can reach hundreds or more developers. Many even develop a personal interest and motivation to reach out to a larger audience than their teammates. Technical Leads combine all the responsibilities of the Developer’s role, albeit with increased expectations, and a set of specific additional responsibilities aimed at contributing to the engineering team and the company as a whole. These developers work on a client project as part of a squad in practice. Thanks to their seniority and experience, they regularly officiate in the role of Team Lead of their squad, but such a role is not compulsory.
- What holds true regardless of team composition is the Tech Lead’s technical leadership.
- We’ll start by explaining why the confusion exists in the first place.
- Also, as we already mentioned, the terms are often used interchangeably.
- Before wrapping up by sharing some final thoughts, we present our verdict.
- Engineering managers in particular are focused on if the existing team is large enough and has the right skill sets to build the product within the determined timeframe.
While not all of it will apply, How to evaluate Engineering Managers can help you better understand Tech Lead KPIs. The average salary for a lead developer is $114,692 per year, while the average salary for a technical lead is $118,295 per year. Both of these salaries can vary depending on the size of the company, the location of the job and the level of experience you have prior to pursuing either position. Also, as we already mentioned, the terms are often used interchangeably.
What is a Tech Lead? The 4 worst things about this promotion
In this way, the Tech-Lead Developer tends to focus more on the operations management aspect of development and should be prepared to take on a variety of roles to complete a project. A lead programmer typically reports to a principal who manages a number of teams. Lead Developers are responsible for the software development process within their organization. They work with a team of developers to plan, design, develop, test, and deploy software solutions.
This is because they’re responsible for understanding the needs of their clients and communicating those needs to other team members. Technical leads typically don’t have much contact with clients, but they may travel to meet with vendors or attend conferences related to their field. Lead developers and technical leads often need to have a bachelor’s degree in computer science or another related field. They might also need to have experience working as a software developer or in a similar role. Additionally, lead developers and technical leads might need to have strong communication skills so they can effectively manage teams of developers.
One of the challenges in defining the tech lead job description is that the shape of the role varies widely from company to company—sometimes even from team to team. From the beginning to the end they are in charge of making sure that the project is completed to the satisfaction of the client, marketing team, and the organization. However, this highlights an important distinction between the two positions. The Tech-Lead Developer is usually a role given to someone within a specific project, while the Senior Software Developer is viewed more as a career title. In this way, it can be understood why the title of Senior Software Developer is a more common title within the field because it is more likely to be viewed as a long-term job position instead of a position within a specific project. Where the Team Lead focused on team issues, the Tech Lead focused on technical topics affecting more than one developer.
Alternatively, technical matters could be decided democratically at the team level by the members themselves, though that certainly requires a maturity that most teams are far from achieving. Unlike a tech lead, the team lead doesn’t need a technical background. Thus, they dedicate the most significant chunk of their time to a client project. However, they also need to fulfill additional responsibilities as senior engineering team members.
Thanks to the high level of their experience and skills, they have room to contribute regularly and in an increased capacity beyond their squad. They are expected to create, lead, contribute and deliver engineering initiatives and showcases. They are also expected to be regular and impactful contributors to internal projects such as template repositories. The latter enables their Chapter(s) and Guild(s) to adopt new tools and techniques. Regardless of the area of expertise, software development is in constant flux. New tools and techniques constantly emerge to improve teams’ capabilities or the Developer Experience (DX).
A software engineer might transition into being a tech lead and later decide to take off the tech lead hat. This shift isn’t a demotion or a loss of seniority; instead, the engineer is choosing to focus on a different set of skills and responsibilities. If they’d like to focus instead more on coding, they may choose to stop being a tech lead, at least temporarily.
Many people feel that Tech Leads should spend the majority (or at least close to a majority) of their time coding. If you’re spending the majority of your time coordinating, an argument could be made that you’ve been https://www.globalcloudteam.com/ unfairly co-opted into an Engineering Management role. The difference, ideally, between a Tech Lead and Engineering Manager is the coordination part of your job should be a part-time role or a temporary tour of duty.
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