> As someone who still does write code occasionally, this is something I struggle with. Our codebase shifts underneath me constantly, in ways I often don’t see. It has been my goal for the year to make sure I say “I’m not sure, let me check” even when I feel confident.
This is not at all consistent with Staff Software Engineer at any of the several Big Tech Companies You've Definitely Heard Of I've worked at. It would be more of a Distinguished Engineer level sinecure[1]. Staff is usually expected to spend at least 50% of their time actually writing software.
[1] Not pejorative. If I were the relevant hiring manager I'd be happy to let someone like, say, Leslie Lamport, to pick a name out of the hat, spend as much or as little time as he felt like writing software just to have him around.