Everyone’s a Tech Lead

AI is reshaping the role of the engineer; are you hiring for what’s needed in this new world?

With AI tools writing boilerplate, scaffolding tests, and generating whole components, the value isn’t in how fast you type — it’s in how clearly you think. The best engineers today act more like tech leads: they design the work, not just do it. They break down problems, define quality, and guide both people and tools toward great outcomes.

When hiring, I am looking for engineers who don’t wait to be told what to build — they shape what gets built. That means stepping up with judgment, creativity, and a strong sense of ownership. It means collaborating across disciplines, empathising with users, and knowing what ‘good’ looks like.

At the same time, the pace of change in tooling and ways of working is accelerating. With AI, agents, and automation, entire categories of work are becoming faster, easier, or even obsolete overnight. The most impactful engineers aren’t just keeping up — they’re investing in themselves, learning how to use these tools to multiply their effectiveness. With the right mindset, a single engineer today can ship what once took a full team. That’s not about hustle — it’s about working smarter, adapting fast, and being curious enough to explore what’s possible.

Here are the values of what I think makes a great Product Engineer for the times ahead:

🧠 Curiosity

You chase answers beyond your job title. You’re always learning — reading around your subject, digging into the unfamiliar, figuring out how the whole system fits together. You don’t stay in your box. You invest in yourself, grow quickly, and are always looking to improve your approach and knowledge.

🎨 Creativity

You bring ideas into the world. Through ingenuity and 10x thinking, you find elegant shortcuts, unexpected solutions, or delightful details. You use tools to create solutions, not just to play with them. You’re an inventor, not just a tinkerer.

🧭 Product Thinking

You don’t just build features — you define them. You have taste and vision, and you know what good looks like. You care about outcomes, empathise with users, and can spec, scope, and prompt ideas from scratch. You focus on building what matters, not just what was asked.

🔥 Passion

You care. You go deep into subjects because they fascinate you. You constantly seek to level up. You raise the bar — not because someone told you to, but because you want to. You care about doing things well, and you share that enthusiasm with others.

🛠 Ownership (Without Ego)

You make sure it happens and love autonomy. You roll up your sleeves, clean up messes, take responsibility, and push things over the line. You lead when needed, support others, and never say “not my job”.

🚀 Bias for Action

You ship fast and learn quickly. Perfect is the enemy of good. You’re not afraid to make decisions without full certainty, and you favour incremental delivery over big upfront builds. You rely on metrics and real feedback to guide what to do next, evolving rather than over-planning.

🤝 Collaboration

You communicate clearly and openly. You share progress, ask for help, and offer help. You’re easy to work with because you want everyone to succeed. You care about the wider community and lift others up through kindness, clarity, and respect.