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 humansThe scope-of-impact ladder and what the best engineers systematizeLearning how to learn: closing gaps to 100% understandingWhy writing is the skill that scalesIf 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.TIMESTAMPS00:00:00 - Impact the Business00:00:31 - FOMO all the time: The 2006 Google Interview00:01:52 - Engineering Roles Are Consolidating00:02:52 - The "Member of Technical Staff" trend in SF00:03:33 - Interns Demo to the CTO00:04:33 - How New Grads Out-Prepare Senior Engineers00:06:10 - Ask Your Agent Before You Ask a Human00:08:01 - Digging Backwards Into Fundamental Understanding00:09:22 - "We're All Junior Engineers Again"00:10:22 - Management Is Not Leadership00:12:04 - Losing PR Throughput as Your #1 Lever00:13:11 - Fulfillment Beyond Shipping Features00:14:32 - Building for Fickle Engineers: Telemetry Beats Opinions00:16:11 - Watching Users Struggle With Your Product00:18:12 - Have Expectations for Seniors Actually Changed?00:19:57 - Claude Says a Month, It Takes Two Hours00:20:33 - What the Best Engineers Do Differently00:21:30 - How Vercel React Skill Came to Be00:22:23 - Why Conference Conversations Hit Different00:23:35 - Learning How to Learn: Close Gaps to 100%00:25:41 - The Case for Liberal Arts in Tech00:27:03 - Get Feedback Early, Don't Hide in the CaveGuest - Lindsey Simon, VP of Engineering at Vercel:https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindseysimon#softwareengineering #ai #careergrowth