At first, when we heard that DDD Perth was held in a stadium, we thought there was no way that could be true. Turns out it is. Well done, Perth! Once we learned the truth of the matter, we just had to come and check it out ourselves and share our zombie sock love. Yeah, we love zombies if the name didn't give it away. And we love our zombie sock merch. That, plus, our co-CEO Paul loves to hear himself talk and our other one, Demelza, loves a stage.Visit Patient Zero →
Back to 2025 Agenda
Jason O'Neil
Career Growth Beyond "Senior"
🕓 11:15 am - 12:00 pm📍 River Room 1 (Lv 3)What are the career opportunities after you've been a "senior engineer" for a while already?
Research from Culture Amp has shown having career opportunities in front of you is the single most important thing for someone's commitment to staying at a company... but after you've reached "senior" it's not always obvious what the next opportunity could even be.
In this talk we'll explore
- What various engineering job titles mean: staff engineer, principal engineer, team lead, tech lead, engineering manager and more.
- The kinds of skills that will make you more valuable to the business and justify a promotion.
- How it looks different at big companies and small companies or startups.
- How skills from parallel roles in design, product management, coaching and more can help.
- Whether you're interested in the "manager" or "individual contributor" path, or if you can have the best of both worlds.
Jason O'Neil














