Tech Leaders Hub Fintech - Episode 1: Defining a new track of technical leadership with Stuart Kelly, Staff Engineer at Zego

<p>There’s a strong typical career path in software engineering: junior, regular, senior, tech lead, engineering manager, and then somewhere down the line: CTO.</p> <p>But the CTO is really a business role with a technical background.</p> <p>As the company scales, it’s less and less focused on software architecture and technical challenges.</p> <p>Instead, a CTO ends up managing 5-6 direct reports, their calendar is filled with 1-on-1s, and their time taken up by strategic meetings, budgets, and hiring policies.</p> <p>Shouldn’t there be a separate track for a different kind of leadership—leadership on a technical level?</p> <p>That’s we talked about with Stuart Kelly, Staff Engineer (and former CTO) at Zego, a fast-growing company changing the face of insurtech.</p> <p>Timestamps:</p> <p>1:07 Who do you hope is tuning in? Who will benefit from our conversation?</p> <p>2:15 What is your #1 tip for other Staff Engineers?</p> <p>3:41 What does Zego do, what is your product about?</p> <p>5:17 What are you building at Zego?</p> <p>8:04 What was your career path at Zego like?</p> <p>13:44 What gave you the confidence to have an honest conversation with the founders about your role?</p> <p>16:47 What are the 5 levels of support that every developer/employee needs?</p> <p>21:27 What level(s) of support did you provide as CTO?</p> <p>23:02 What is your advice for other Staff Engineers to mediate conversations better?</p> <p>25:16 What is the hardest part of the Staff Engineer role?</p> <p>30:32 How do you create the “path of least resistance” for teams as Staff Engineer?</p> <p>38:40 How do you plan for 18 months ahead at Zego?</p> <p>42:01 What is especially challenging for engineering leaders in insurtech?</p> <p>47:30 How are insurance companies upping their game?</p> <p>50:44 How much data is too much data in insurtech? What about data privacy?</p> <p>56:36 Any announcements for our audience?</p> <p>Get more guides, news, and videos from STX Next!</p> <p>Website: https://stxnext.com/</p> <p>LinkedIn: https://www.link