Ask HN: How to find senior position focused on “pure” tech? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How to find senior position focused on “pure” tech?

9 pointstmp4049 comments

Hi HN!

(Using an alt account to avoid exposing my identity to my current employer...)

I've worked in $big_tech as a senior engineer for 5 years. I've worked different teams, but invariably being "senior" makes me the highest-level individual contributor on the team and I take up some sort of tech lead role.

I've realized that I don't enjoy tech lead work [1] that much, and what really interests me is more "pure" tech work instead - coding and designing, plus the problem to solve is an interesting tech problem rather than a business one.

This seems only possible if I am not the highest-level individual contributor on the team, in other words the team has to be staffed exclusively of senior engineers. The $big_corp I work for has some such teams (mostly teams working on core infrastructure or important libraries) but unfortunately not in my location (UK).

So I'd like to look in the job market for such positions, but then I'm at a loss in how to find them. A search for keywords like "senior tech team" renders the same result as a search "senior tech position" which is not really what I want.

Any tips? Or suggestions of interesting companies that have teams that satisfy my criteria and are hiring? Thanks.

[1] I spend say 2/3 of my time planning projects, helping colleagues scope their work, matching tech decisions to business needs, plus doing some light "politicking" to get partner teams on the same page as my team.

> what really interests me is more "pure" tech work instead - coding and designing, plus the problem to solve is an interesting tech problem rather than a business one.

Businesses pay people to solve business problems, not "pure tech" problems. What you call "pure tech" fits into either the academic field of computer science or expanding your own skills in a direction not necessarily valuable to your employer.

Core infrastructure and important libraries must have value to the business and solve business problems, at a level removed far enough to look like "pure tech," but the business likely wouldn't invest in those efforts for the sake of doing pure research, so maybe you just romanticize that work because it has less contact with customer concerns, marketing, or management.

Well business and tech are not a dichotomy, we're talking about tech companies after all.

I'm not asking how to look for "pure tech" positions that _contradict_ business values, but rather positions where working on tech problems as a senior engineer happens to align with business values.

Tech company or some other sector, the main goal of any business amounts to making money. That may involve working on "pure tech" however defined, but it will also necessarily require implementing solutions to business problems. Some of those problems will look more interesting and challenging than others.

Where in the organization you might find more satisfying work comes down the organization and what you find interesting. I doubt it has much to do with job titles, though if you have to spend a lot of time managing other people and going to meetings that won't feel like working on "pure tech."

As mentioned by gregjor business pay people to solve business problems but given your interest in pure tech I would look for companies who's core business is something purely technical (example: DevTool companies are a great place to start).

Unsure what you mean by "senior" roles, but in most large companies it's what you described as not wanting to do: tech + non tech responsibilities. If by seniority you mean owning a larger piece of the codebase and solving challenging problems I would look more for roles of "founding engineers" or simply "software engineer" at early stage startups (again building software that has a technical edge).

The smaller the organisation and the more its business is purely a tech product in itself the more likely it will align with what you're looking for (+ you'll be surrounded with like minded engineers). Hope it helps :)

It depends on what you mean by pure tech. I take what you're saying as "intellectually interesting," where you can focus on tech more than business. Obviously, any for profit company will have some proportion of business stuff in your job.

I suggest looking at scientific companies - think medical devices, sensors, medical imaging, research, etc.

We have a few positions open in London office if it helps

https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/general/about/careers-...

You might be able to work from London office for other tech positions.

Have you looked into Staff Engineer positions? That's a title I have seen at the senior+ level.

Well my goal is not to find a more senior role myself, but a team of senior people working on interesting tech problems.

Choosing a company that works on interesting tech problems is probably the path here. It may need to be specific teams/projects within the company too.

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