Leadership

Principal Engineers often default to technical authority as their primary lever. But at staff-plus scope, the PEs who scale effectively are the ones who build mechanisms—borrowed from managers and TPMs—that carry their judgment into rooms they’ll never enter. This post covers how to identify, build, and deploy those mechanisms without waiting for permission.

Most Principal Engineers try to scale by doing more of what already works. That approach breaks down when your scope jumps from 50 engineers to 5,000. This post introduces the step-function mental model for PE growth and the Three-Position Framework for managing the outsized influence your voice carries at this level.

Why I decided to start writing — and why now felt like the right moment.