[canterburry]

Every leader has their "go to" people.

You want to be one of those "go to" people! They are put on the most challenging assignments, the most exciting opportunities, more often promoted, protected from above, last to let go and frequently asked to follow that leader to new assignments at new companies usually with higher titles and better comp.

It seems to me you have been spotted by your Sr. Director and given an opportunity to prove yourself as you did in your prior team. It's a logical move to take a high performer from one team, and try to prop up an underperforming team. It's about what's good for the company.

If this fails, you won't necessarily be blamed, but you'll have lost an opportunity to really stand out amongst any other engineer at your level and earn the status of your Sr. Director's "go to" person.

Your value is in being a versatile, competent "can do anything, anywhere and happy to do it" type of resource who can be thrown into the biggest messes and come out looking good.

[v3xro]

To weight in with what most likely is an unpopular opinion here on HN - but you also have to consider your job satisfaction and stress factors before and after the potential move - sometimes it is best to shift orgs entirely and continue doing what you like doing rather than be forced to take on new challenges (that might or might not be intractable).

[ChrisMarshallNY]

It really depends on the type of person you are.

Not everyone is up for that (yes, it can be quite stressful). For those that can deal with it, it can be a lot of fun. I'm a good fixer, but not really into the chaos that fixers often deal with.

I know folks that are consultants, exactly so they won't be tied down to one task.

[mathgeek]

This really echoes the old “hackers, builders, maintainers” analogy and its wisdom about knowing which you are and being able to understand the other two aren’t the same as you are. Likely dips into the spectrums between as well.

[canterburry]

Well, sounded to me like OP wanted a career. What I described leads to a career.

[nostrademons]

Sort of.

There are two basic ways to orient a career: around a set of people that you are loyal to and work well with (and then let the specific assignments float to whatever needs doing), and around a type of work that you enjoy doing (and then let the people come and go, standing out by your competence in the domain).

I've found that the former often leads to more promotions and opportunities, because people make the decisions after all. But OP's expressed desires indicate more the latter. He gets satisfaction out of the work itself, understanding the technical domain and challenges. If that's your personality type and your inclination, you can make yourself very unhappy (not to mention underperforming) by pushing yourself into types of work that don't give you satisfaction, for the sake of preserving relationships. Sometimes it's worth it to forego the attractive opportunities favored by senior leadership so that you can continue to work on the things that you find enjoyable.

[Salgat]

They already had a satisfying career, their complaint centers around how that was derailed and now they're working on something they have no interest in.

[stronglikedan]

> I'm not willing to leave the company

[freedomben]

Agree with this. The big risk though is that you must continue to be seen the same way. Humans are highly prone to out-of-sight-out-of-mind, so you need to continually refresh their memory of you being that high performer. It's stupid and sucks, but unfortunately it's the way 95% of people are, and becoming a director doesn't change that underlying nature.

My advice:

1. Do try to report directly to the new director

2. Be honest and (mostly) open with them about your situation, and let them know that you are up for this challenge but that it won't be easy. Ask them for advice periodically with problems you run into (especially/mostly people problems unless they are very technical, which is rare at that level). Genuinely ask for advice though. Even if you don't take it, earnestly seek to understand what they would do and then use your own judgment about application.

3. Keep your eyes/ears open for new opportunities that might come up, but try to rate limit yourself because you don't want this to cause you to pull away from your new area or become a distraction. Also think about it as a "what could be next" not an opportunity to escape/eject early.

[weinzierl]

This is all true but even if you manage to become the "go to" person there is a potential trap. It's what I call the Promotion Ponzi. If you've been recognized as the "go to" guy you will be presented with new and bigger challenges at times. Make sure it always pays off in either money or (real) [1] responsibility, better both.

If it doesn't, run.

[1] Flashy titles and perks that cost the company next to nothing don't count. Best metric is the number of your reports.

[mrsilencedogood]

"Sr. Director and given an opportunity to prove yourself"

from OP: "new team is known to be under-performing"

Uhh it sounds to me like the senior staff that the guy displaced OP with was the go-to guy and that OP has been given a shit sandwich. If OP wasn't specifically briefed by the sr director and TOLD "You're one of my go-to guys. I know this is a shit sandwich. Please help me fix it.", then this is basically constructive dismissal and they want you to just disappear.

On top of that, IME, go-to guys don't get sent to go fix stuff unless it's a clean sweep of the old "bad" team. They wouldn't send you in with known-low-performers, it's setting you up to fail.

Edit: Reading over other comments, I'm just in disbelief at how universally people are saying this is an opportunity. No, they cut off OP's support system, pushed them out of their top-spot, and off over to some team that leadership views as the trash pile. There's a difference between "this team is struggling and I'm bringing in support" and "damn, where do i put this guy. i'll just put them over here, with the rest of the fire."

[compiler-guy]

> pushed them out of their top-spot,

err, "Promoted them out of their top-spot to one even higher."

If it were not for this detail I would agree with you. But if the boss is intending to constructively dismiss you, they don't give you a promotion as part of it.

[geodel]

Well even if you are right what is supposed to be done now? Other comments are telling to take it as opportunity and make most of this bad situation. Since OP does not want to leave what is your suggestion? Complain every day at work? Complain to HR? Do no accept new project and wait for next move from management?

Not every go-to guy is CEOs right hand who just goes in fires old team and put in new one in first month. Most of the time even go-to person has to make it work with existing teams.

[lostdog]

If it were constructive dismissal then they wouldn't have promoted him.

This is "I heard you were a high performer but I don't know you directly, so I have high uncertainty. I have a team that needs guidance, but I don't care enough about that team to put the person I trust most in charge. I think you're probably good, so here's an opportunity to turn around a struggling team and impress me."

It is definitely a shit sandwich though. The senior director didn't care enough about this team to really try to help them, and didn't care enough about you to pump you up about the opportunity.

[Viliam1234]

> Reading over other comments, I'm just in disbelief at how universally people are saying this is an opportunity.

I think it's called positive thinking. Or wishful thinking. Something like that.

In theory, everything is an opportunity. Even getting cancer is an opportunity to reflect on your priorities, call the people you love, make peace with your gods. It's just, some of us would prefer not to get this kind of opportunities.