Vercel VP: What Senior Engineers do Differently

What senior engineers do differently has less to do with output than most career ladders suggest, and Lindsey Simon, VP of Engineering at Vercel, has watched the distinction sharpen as everyone in the valley becomes a "member of technical staff." From why new grads with hackathon years might out-prepare engineers with six years on the job, to what happens when PR throughput stops being your lever, this is a conversation about what earns seniority now. In this episode, we cover: - Why engineering roles are consolidating into "member of technical staff" - How to ask agents first and frame better questions to humans - The scope-of-impact ladder and what the best engineers systematize - Learning how to learn: closing gaps to 100% understanding - Why writing is the skill that scales If you're wondering whether your years of experience still compound, or you're early-career and tired of the "woe is the juniors" narrative, this one reframes both. This podcast was recorded at TechLead Conference, a conference for engineering leaders on adopting AI. TIMESTAMPS 00:00:00 - Impact the Business 00:00:31 - FOMO all the time: The 2006 Google Interview 00:01:52 - Engineering Roles Are Consolidating 00:02:52 - The "Member of Technical Staff" trend in SF 00:03:33 - Interns Demo to the CTO 00:04:33 - How New Grads Out-Prepare Senior Engineers 00:06:10 - Ask Your Agent Before You Ask a Human 00:08:01 - Digging Backwards Into Fundamental Understanding 00:09:22 - "We're All Junior Engineers Again" 00:10:22 - Management Is Not Leadership 00:12:04 - Losing PR Throughput as Your #1 Lever 00:13:11 - Fulfillment Beyond Shipping Features 00:14:32 - Building for Fickle Engineers: Telemetry Beats Opinions 00:16:11 - Watching Users Struggle With Your Product 00:18:12 - Have Expectations for Seniors Actually Changed? 00:19:57 - Claude Says a Month, It Takes Two Hours 00:20:33 - What the Best Engineers Do Differently 00:21:30 - How Vercel React Skill Came to Be 00:22:23 - Why Conference Conversations Hit Different 00:23:35 - Learning How to Learn: Close Gaps to 100% 00:25:41 - The Case for Liberal Arts in Tech 00:27:03 - Get Feedback Early, Don't Hide in the Cave Guest - Lindsey Simon, VP of Engineering at Vercel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindseysimon #softwareengineering #ai #careergrowth Connect with Patrick Akil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-akil https://twitter.com/PatrickAkil_