Content Menu
How To Secure a Leadership Role in Tech: Insights from an Engineering Leader
Rosie Brigham is the Deputy Head of Engineering at the Ministry of Justice, where she provides strategic leadership for the engineering profession. Having trained in Code First Girls’ very first cohort, she now serves on their Technology Advisory Board.
The jump between junior, mid and senior is often relatively linear. It’s mostly about increasing familiarity with the tools and technology you are working with. However, leadership roles require slightly more. Alongside writing and reviewing solid code you need to demonstrate your ability to scope and deliver larger pieces of work, set good guardrails (especially important in agentic development), and crucially the ability to foster an environment where a team can do their best work.
Therefore, getting your first leadership role in tech can pose quite a challenge as there can be some crucial differences between the job you are doing, and the role you are aiming for. There’s no Jira ticket entitled “practice leadership,” with a lovely “done” column to move it into once you have mastered it (if only!) So if you are looking for your next move, but not sure where to start, here are some practical things that helped me when I first made the shift.
Borrow What Works
Pay attention to senior members of your team/company, especially in small everyday moments. This can be in things like how they may handle a disagreement, how they decide what’s worth escalating or how they protect the team’s time. It’s likely some of their approaches you disagree with, and noticing that is useful in itself. With these observations in mind, find places in your own job where you can put these into practice. Proactivity is key to getting a leadership role in tech. You don’t need permission to run a calmer retro, mentor someone who’s stuck, or identify and flag a risk before it becomes a problem.
Step In When Needed
Be the person who steps in when things start going off the rails. If your Project Manager usually runs standup and they’re away, you volunteer. If there are some stories that need to be better refined, tackle that yourself. Find small pockets of responsibility and grab them by the horns.
A lot of the people I’ve mentored have already started doing this without realising it; leading retros, standups or refinement sessions. Doing this you often become the default person the team turns to, which puts you in a strong position whether you’re asking for a promotion or walking into an interview for a new role. This leads me onto the next point…
Document Your Successes!
It may be that you’re already doing this, but because you have been doing things little and often, you may find it difficult to think of examples of leadership in an application/or interview scenario. If this is the case, create yourself a brag document. I’ve kept one for several years now and I cannot recommend it enough. It is, quite simply, a private document where you write down your successes (ideally with a date). This can be anything big or small if it feels like a success, ‘scoped and delivered my first epic’, ‘read all the slack messages’ or even ‘managed to work on three hours sleep after a surprise toddler sleep regression’. The one rule – modesty is not an option.
Make your document easy to update. My first version had lovely formatting and emojis, but I rarely added to it because it felt like extra work. Now it’s just a plain note with bullet points called “Cool stuff I’ve done.” As a bonus, it’s the perfect thing to read back on when the old imposter syndrome rears its ugly head.
Shout About Your Successes To Secure A Leadership Role In Tech!
When I asked Claude to suggest some summing up lines for getting a leadership role in tech it suggested “do these things quietly and recognition comes on its own”. Incorrect. Note down what you have been doing and shout it from the rooftops. Take your brag document into your next 1-2-1, pay review or job interview and use it to outline why you deserve the job. It’s likely because you already are doing it.
