The New Seniority: Why Member of Technical Staff Signals a Fundamental Shift

In this conversation, Lindsey Simon, VP of Engineering at Vercel, explains that the traditional software engineering ladder is collapsing into a single, fluid role: the Member of Technical Staff. This is not just a branding change to prevent poaching. It reflects a shift where the boundaries between product, design, and engineering are dissolving. The implication is that seniority is no longer defined by functional output, such as PR throughput, but by your ability to systematize knowledge and unblock others. For the modern engineer, the advantage lies in learning how to learn to fill gaps in understanding. Those who treat AI as a partner for research rather than a shortcut to completion will gain a competitive edge, while those who hide in the cave of individual effort will find their relevance diminishing.

The Hidden Cost of Expertise

The most dangerous trap for experienced engineers is relying on past credentials. Simon notes that new graduates, unburdened by the weight of experience, often out-prepare veterans because they approach tasks with a builder-minded boldness. They do not assume they need permission or specialized expertise to touch the backend, design, or product logic.

This creates a paradox: while veterans rely on their established expertise, they often stagnate. The system favors those who can navigate problems using AI agents to bridge knowledge gaps. When you treat AI as a research tool to dig into fundamental principles, rather than a black box that provides a good enough answer, you build a foundation that is more durable than years of siloed experience.

The people who will lead and come up with the innovation end to be the people building. They are really good at unblocking themselves and they are really good at unblocking other people proactively.

-- Lindsey Simon

Systematizing Impact to Scale

As an engineer moves up the scope of impact ladder, their primary lever changes. Early in a career, impact is measured by code volume and PR throughput. But as Simon notes, if you treat that as your only lever, you hit a ceiling. The transition to true seniority requires shifting from doing to systematizing.

This is where the delayed payoff becomes apparent. An engineer who spends time documenting best practices or building reusable skills, like the React patterns mentioned in the discussion, creates a ripple effect that lasts far longer than any single feature launch. This requires the patience to build breadcrumbs for others, a task that feels less productive in the moment but creates a lasting moat for the organization.

If you figure out how to systematize helping two people directly and you leave a breadcrumb behind that will help the next 10 people, that is a serious... That is the kind of activity that happens at a more experienced level.

-- Lindsey Simon

The Feedback Loop as a Competitive Advantage

Conventional wisdom suggests that deep, solitary work is the hallmark of the elite engineer. Simon argues the opposite: the best practitioners are those who refuse to hide in the cave. By treating user feedback, and even harsh criticism, as telemetry rather than a personal attack, engineers can iterate faster than their competitors.

This is a systems-level insight: telemetry beats opinions. When you sit a user down and watch them struggle with your product, the immediate pain you feel is not a failure; it is a signal. The engineers who lean into this discomfort and fix the friction point immediately are the ones who build products that actually stick.

Key Action Items

• Audit your unblocking process (Immediate): The next time you are stuck, use an AI agent to research the fundamental principles behind the problem before asking a human. Frame your request to the human by explaining what you tried and why the AI answer was insufficient. This shows high-level competence.
• Identify your systematization project (Over the next quarter): Instead of focusing solely on shipping features, identify one recurring technical hurdle your team faces. Build a skill or documentation set that solves this for others. This is your first step toward scaling impact beyond your own PR throughput.
• Practice 100 percent understanding (Ongoing): Stop accepting good enough answers. When you encounter a concept you do not fully grasp, trace it back to the fundamentals. If you got an 85 percent on a concept in the past, go back and close that 15 percent gap. This prevents the splinters of ignorance that slow you down later.
• Prioritize writing as a technical skill (12-18 months): Treat English as a primary programming language. Practice distilling complex experiments into concise descriptions. This forces you to clarify your own thinking and makes your work consumable by the rest of the organization.
• Force unfiltered feedback (Monthly): Conduct impromptu feedback sessions where you watch a user or peer interact with your work without your guidance. Resist the urge to explain or steer. Use the discomfort of watching them struggle to fuel your next iteration.