What is the difference between "senior staff engineer" and "senior engineer"? Thanks! ?

Question

What is the difference between "senior staff engineer" and "senior engineer"? Thanks! ?

Answer 1

Some "Senior Engineers" are just well, old.  Doesn't mean they know more, they may have forgotten more.

Answer 2

Most of the difference comes from how each company who uses those titles define them.

In every company I've worked for, a staff engineer is a higher rank/higher paid engineer than a (non-staff) engineer.  In some companies senior staff engineer is the highest level attainable, or the 2nd highest (to "Fellow" Engineer, or Senior Fellow).

Staff engineers are those who have broader experience within a company and who can perform many different tasks (sometimes even  at the same time! LOL).

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