Mastering Senior Engineer Management: Coaching Beyond Code

Guiding the Guides: Thoughts on Managing Senior Engineers

Lately I’ve been reflecting on something that caught me off guard in my journey as an engineering manager. When I first stepped into leadership, I assumed my toughest coaching work would be with juniors—the fresh graduates, the early-career hires who were still learning the ropes. I thought I’d spend most of my time teaching fundamentals, reviewing code, and showing them the broader picture. But I was wrong.

Most of my time, and perhaps the most energy-consuming part of my role, has been spent managing senior engineers.

Now, don’t get me wrong—senior engineers are phenomenal. They’re the ones who can independently solve complex technical problems, ship impactful features, and often carry a team through a difficult project. On paper, they should be the easiest group to manage. After all, they don’t need someone breathing down their neck. But here’s the twist: their expertise comes with unique challenges.

Over the years, I’ve noticed patterns. Certain archetypes emerge repeatedly, and as managers, it helps us to recognize them. Once we name them, we can coach more intentionally. Today, I want to share some reflections on four types of senior engineers that I’ve come across—and perhaps you’ve met them too.

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The Over-Engineer

Let’s start with the one I often meet first: the Over-Engineer.
These folks have an undeniable passion for building ambitious systems. Give them a modest problem, and they’ll return with a grand design that could power a company three times our size. I remember one project where an engineer proposed a Redis-backed service just to migrate GitHub repos. The design was impressive. The execution, however, stretched into months, introduced unexpected bugs, and ultimately missed the business deadline.

The lesson here? Their drive comes from a good place. They want to make things robust and future-proof. But unchecked, that same strength can cost the team dearly.

Our coaching tip: bring them back to the customer value. A simple question works wonders: “What’s the simplest thing that could work right now?” Encourage decision records and force trade-off discussions. Sometimes we need to gently introduce constraints—time, cost, or team size—to nudge them into thinking leaner. It’s not about dampening their creativity, but about channeling it toward real impact.

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The Builder-First

Then there’s the Builder-First engineer. These are the doers who jump headfirst into coding, often without pausing to design. I once asked for a design doc for a dashboard, only to later discover the engineer had already started writing Splunk queries and assembling Grafana panels. Their rationale? “I’ll document later once I know it works.”

Here’s the tricky part—they aren’t wrong to validate through building. But when collaboration or scaling comes into play, lack of upfront design creates bottlenecks.

Our coaching tip: remind them that design docs aren’t bureaucratic paperwork. They’re conversation starters. Encourage “rough draft” thinking—tell them it’s fine to miss edge cases or assumptions. Highlight that documenting early enables others to join in, estimate timelines, or even take ownership. We’ve found analogies help: “Design first like you would outline an essay. You don’t write the conclusion before you know the argument.”

The Ambiguity-Freezer

Ah, the Ambiguity-Freezer—the senior engineer who seems fearless until vague requirements land on their plate. Instead of a clear API spec, they’re asked to “help us understand customer behavior.” Suddenly, the confidence wavers. They dive into random analyses, hoping clarity appears like magic.

What’s happening here is natural. As engineers rise in seniority, problems grow fuzzier. Real-world business goals rarely translate into neat JIRA tickets. The challenge is less about technical skill and more about navigating uncertainty.

Our coaching tip: ambiguity is best tackled through questions. Encourage them to map stakeholders, define metrics, and even list non-answers. Non-answers are powerful—they still reveal boundaries and expectations. I’ve also leaned on inversion techniques: instead of asking, “What ensures success?” flip it to, “What would guarantee failure?” and work backwards. This reframing turns vagueness into something actionable.

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The Soloist

Finally, we meet the Soloist. This archetype thrives on independence. They’re quick, efficient, and deeply knowledgeable. But the downside? They hesitate to delegate. “It’ll be faster if I just do it myself,” is their mantra.

This tendency is dangerous at scale. Soloists limit their own impact because they’re not multiplying their knowledge across the team.

Our coaching tip: shift their mindset from linear to parallel work. Break projects into smaller streams and show them how delegation creates leverage. Sometimes they just need trust-building—pair programming sessions, one-on-ones, and low-stakes handoffs can help. Remind them that leadership isn’t just about delivering code, but about enabling others to deliver too.

Closing Thoughts

As I step back and reflect on these archetypes, a pattern emerges: the very strengths that make senior engineers invaluable also create their blind spots. The Over-Engineer’s ambition, the Builder-First’s action bias, the Freezer’s perfectionism, the Soloist’s independence—none of these are weaknesses in isolation. But without coaching, they can slow the team down.

That’s why I remind myself constantly: senior engineers don’t need micromanaging, they need coaching. They already have mastery of their craft. What they need is perspective—someone to hold up a mirror and help them see when their instincts are working against them.

As managers, spotting patterns early is a form of leverage. Once we recognize the archetype, we can guide without judgment. And when senior engineers grow, the entire team levels up. It’s not just their career that accelerates—it’s the organization’s ability to deliver meaningful value.

A Few Practical Takeaways

Since this newsletter is about sharing—not just storytelling—let me leave you with a handful of tips that have helped me and might serve you too:

• With Over-Engineers: Always anchor back to customer value. Use constraints as creativity drivers, not blockers.

• With Builder-Firsts: Normalize rough drafts. Frame design docs as shared thinking tools, not final blueprints.

• With Ambiguity-Freezers: Coach with questions, not answers. Turn vagueness into clarity by mapping stakeholders and reframing problems.

• With Soloists: Create opportunities for trust. Break projects into parallelizable chunks and highlight how delegation grows their influence.

Above all, remember that these challenges come from a place of strength. When we approach them with empathy and curiosity, we don’t just “manage” senior engineers—we help them thrive.

So here’s my parting thought: if you’re spending a surprising amount of time coaching your most experienced engineers, don’t be discouraged. You’re not doing it wrong. You’re doing it right. Because the better they get, the better everyone else gets too.

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