A distinguished engineer is a renowned specialist in different technology fields, representing senior technical leadership within the organization they work for.
Distinguished engineers are mostly responsible for helping to create the organization’s future orientation, helping management establish strategic roadmaps, and driving objectives-related goals.
Often, distinguished engineers have a proven track record of developing and influencing people, collaborating with all levels of senior leadership, and ensuring psychological safety and team member happiness.
This article explores the roles and responsibilities of distinguished engineers and other relevant information about them.
Read on to learn more.
Who is a distinguished engineer?
Distinguished engineers are individual contributors (do not manage anyone directly) who are vital members of engineering teams.
They can advance to higher degrees of seniority on the distinguished engineering career path without learning to lead teams of people.
Often, when an employee reaches the director level, they are promoted to the position of distinguished engineer.
And this makes them eligible for promotion to the positions of Senior Distinguished Engineer (Senior Director) and Executive Distinguished Engineer (Vice President level).
What do distinguished engineers do?
In every company, distinguished engineers have a wide range of roles and responsibilities across technical and leadership roles. They include:
Technical responsibilities:
- Guide the team’s technical development as a security product expert
- Frequently stay in touch with the project manager to provide technical information about the market and collaborate on vision items.
- Help the engineering manager to streamline procedures and reduce complexity during implementation
- Communicate with customers about the company’s security products and provide technical support to the customer service team
- Test-drive emerging security solutions for possible incorporation into the existing product line
- Work together with the in-house security group on technical projects
- Collaborate with our in-house security experts to establish goals and set milestones
- Help with technical interviews
- Help engineers with feature development and fixing technical debt issues
- Iteratively create robust architecture and systems.
- Establish a channel of communication for teams dealing with intractable technical issues
- Reach a level of success that can be seen in the company-wide performance of teams
- Identify issues and technical interdependencies and propose solutions
- Use quantitative analysis to influence important business decisions
Leadership responsibilities:
- Perform a key role in resolving technical, business, and organizational difficulties
- Facilitate the learning, development, and advice of other experts, and teams within the organization
- Create links to strategic allies through technology and internal processes.
- Engage in collaborative problem-solving with key customers in allocated areas to overcome technological obstacles
- Put the company’s beliefs into practice in codes, reviews, discussions, and general workflow
- Facilitate discussions to boost inter-team collaboration
- Be present for important events such as conferences, user groups, meetups, webinars, etc
- Create or provide advice for in-house training initiatives
- Respect others and act with modesty
Skills needed of a distinguished engineer
- Proficiency in Golang, Ruby, and SQL
- Expert in low-level programming and fixing problems with memory and performance
- Platform development skills for Docker and Kubernetes
- Expert in the product areas of Continuous Integration delivery
Distinguished engineers’ career outlook
For some, people management is a fascinating career path, while some believe that influencing and guiding people (without managing them directly) is a more fascinating and authentic career path.
And distinguished engineers are different from managers, the best part about the role is the use of technology to address business problems, and they are respected for their distinct contributions.
However, only a few engineers ever achieve the status of distinguished, as the position is highly esteemed because it is awarded in appreciation of exceptional technical performance, over the years.
Similar to administrators, distinguished engineers’ job is to improve the efficiency of the technical product and the company as a whole, but unlike the administrators, there is no set formula for doing so.
They are the company’s technical thinking partners, guiding the company’s strategy and helping to shape its future, which includes collaborating with executive teams, maintaining harmony with management, preventing frustrations from both sides, etc.
And the good thing about this position is that distinguished engineers still have the chance to return to a managerial position, and can transition into a position as a people manager at any point in their career while retaining their flexibility.
The distinguished engineer position is just a step below the prestigious “Fellow” designation, as big companies are more likely to employ notable engineers who could rise to such a level.
How much does Distinguished Engineer earn?
As of September 26, 2022, the normal compensation range for a Distinguished Engineer is between $186,877 and $266,530, with an average salary of $220,097.
However, different criteria, such as level of education, certifications, additional skills, and years of experience, can have a significant impact on salary.
Distinguished engineer: Requirements
- 10+ years of work experience with at least 4 in a leadership capacity, such as engineering manager or staff engineer
- Creative problem solver and thinker who can break down complex problems into actionable steps and come up with solutions
- Ability to succeed in a remote capacity
- Deep and comprehensive understanding of existing and cutting-edge business technologies
- Expertise with the company’s product, architecture, and workflows at both small and large scale
- Working knowledge of designing, implementing, and troubleshooting production stack
- English language proficiency, as well as good written and oral communication skills
- A desire for communication, participation, visibility, and openness
- Technical experience in leading teams
FAQs
What grade level is a distinguished engineer?
A distinguished engineer is a grade 10 expert.
What is the difference between a distinguished and a principal engineer?
Principal engineers are responsible for the engineering output of a large group of teams, or departments, while distinguished engineers are responsible for the engineering production of the entire company.
Conclusion
The distinguished engineer career path allows you to focus on the technology space and encourages you to bring your complete self to work every day.
And the best thing about being a distinguished engineer is that it lets experts help solve business problems with technology.
It takes a lot of time and effort to keep contributing on a technical level and move forward. Hence, distinguished engineers are recognized for their work and given the chance to always say what they think.
I hope you found this article helpful. You can also read to know the qualities and responsibilities of a solutions engineer.
Thanks for reading.
