[svaha1728]

Nothing wrong with the senior engineer level. I’ve had the experience of managing 75 developers and I enjoy the fact that right now I’m “just” a Senior Software Engineer.

[balls187]

Back in my day, Staff was below Senior.

But staff engineer wasn’t really used, and title inflation started giving out senior level titles for 3 years experience, so I guess Staff got rebranded as more senior than senior.

[fishpen0]

The difference is often that “Member of technical staff” and “Staff” are two different things. Lots of companies have “member of staff” ~= swe 1 and 2 but then simultaneously also have staff above senior.

[SoftTalker]

Same. "Staff" was entry level. The word "Junior" was not used in job titles, and I still think it sounds belittling.

[gowld]

You don't need to manage 75 developers to be a higher-level engineer on the title/pay ladder.