Reaching the senior level is a milestone in every engineer’s career. By this stage, you’ve built strong technical expertise, earned the trust of your colleagues and are known for delivering reliable results. But for many, the next question naturally arises: what comes after senior?
For some, the answer is to go even deeper into the technical track. For others, it’s about stepping into a lead role. And while that path can be rewarding, it’s also very different from what you may be used to. Moving into leadership doesn’t mean simply being the most experienced engineer in the room - it means measuring your success through the achievements of your team. It requires a shift in focus: more mentoring, more communication and more responsibility for decisions that go beyond your own code.
To explore this topic, we turned to Katarzyna Sordyl, Team Success Manager at Pwrteams, who has previously worked with engineers preparing to step into their first lead roles. In this article, she outlines the key differences between senior and lead, and offers practical advice for a smooth transition. Read on to find out more.
Why teams need leads
Software development is rarely a solo effort. Even the strongest engineers can only achieve so much on their own - the real impact comes when a team works well together. But teams don’t automatically organise themselves. Someone has to make sure priorities are clear, problems are unblocked and knowledge flows between people instead of staying in silos.
That’s where the lead role comes in. A lead provides direction, connects the dots between the technical and business sides and creates the conditions for others to perform at their best. The role isn’t about being the “top coder” - it’s about ensuring the team as a whole delivers consistently and grows stronger over time.
For engineers considering their next step, understanding this purpose is essential. A lead isn’t just a senior with more years of experience - it’s a role with a very different focus and a different measure of success.
Senior vs lead: the real differences
At first glance, moving from senior to lead might look like a straightforward step up - the same work, just with more influence. In reality, the differences are sharper than many expect.
As a senior engineer, your focus is still on delivery. You’re trusted with the most complex tasks, you set an example in code quality and you may mentor others occasionally. Your success is measured largely by the scope and impact of your own contributions.
As a lead, the measure shifts. It’s no longer about how much you personally deliver, but whether the team delivers. This means fewer hours writing code and more time shaping priorities, aligning technical choices with business needs and ensuring the right people are focused on the right work. You’ll often find yourself bridging between developers, managers and clients - a role that demands clarity, patience and balance.
This transition can be challenging. Many new leads are surprised at how little time they spend on deep technical work compared to their senior days. But it’s this very shift from “what I build” to “what we achieve together” that defines the essence of the lead role.
What’s expected once you step up
Taking on a lead role means stepping into a much wider set of responsibilities than you’ve had as a senior. You’re still expected to keep your technical knowledge sharp, but the way you apply it changes. Instead of being the one who solves every tough problem, you’re expected to guide others towards the right solutions and make sure the team as a whole is moving in the right direction.
A few of the key expectations include:
-
Owning delivery - as a lead, you’re accountable for whether the team delivers on its commitments. This means tracking progress, spotting risks early and making adjustments when needed.
-
Mentoring and support - you’ll be looked to for guidance, whether that’s helping a junior untangle a tricky bug or supporting a colleague who’s stuck on a design decision.
-
Making trade-offs - technical decisions rarely have one perfect answer. You’ll need to weigh speed against quality, short-term fixes against long-term stability and explain those choices clearly to stakeholders.
-
Representing the team - in many cases, you’ll be the voice of your team in conversations with managers, clients or product owners. This requires the ability to communicate clearly, manage expectations and sometimes push back.
These expectations can feel daunting at first, especially if you’ve been used to proving yourself through code alone. But they also give you the chance to influence outcomes on a much bigger scale, not just through what you build, but through how you help others build successfully.
Preparing while you’re still a senior
You don’t need a change in job title to start building leadership experience. In fact, the best preparation often happens while you’re still a senior, when you have the chance to try out new responsibilities without the full weight of accountability on your shoulders.
Here are some ways to start getting ready:
-
Mentor a colleague - whether it’s helping a junior learn a new framework or guiding a peer through a design review, mentoring develops both your teaching skills and your patience.
-
Take ownership of a small project - volunteer to lead a feature, a sprint or even just a small improvement initiative. It gives you practice in planning, delegation and seeing work through to completion.
-
Practise giving feedback - being able to share constructive feedback is one of the most valuable skills a lead can develop. Start small by giving thoughtful input in code reviews or project retrospectives.
-
Observe how leads operate – pay attention to how current leads handle meetings, client conversations or difficult trade-offs. There’s a lot to learn simply from seeing what works (and what doesn’t).
-
Work on communication - practise explaining technical decisions to non-technical colleagues. The more comfortable you are with this now, the easier it will be later.
Each of these steps helps you build credibility and confidence. They also give managers and colleagues a chance to see you as someone who’s already thinking beyond your own tasks, which makes the eventual transition into a lead role far smoother.
Pitfalls that catch new leads out
Even the most capable engineers can stumble when they first step into a lead role. The mistakes are rarely about technical skills - they’re usually about mindset and habits carried over from being a senior.
Here are some of the most common traps:
-
Trying to code as much as before - many new leads struggle to let go of their old workload. The result? Either the leadership tasks suffer or the coding does. Accepting that your focus has shifted is one of the hardest, but most important, adjustments.
-
Avoiding “people problems” - it can feel easier to dive into code than to tackle conflicts, performance issues or miscommunication. But as a lead, addressing these challenges is part of the job and avoiding them only makes things worse.
-
Believing leadership is about control - some new leads think they need to have the final say on everything. In reality, good leadership is about enabling others to take ownership, not about micromanaging every decision.
-
Forgetting to look upwards as well as downwards - while supporting your team, it’s easy to lose sight of the need to manage expectations with stakeholders and keep alignment with the bigger picture.
These pitfalls are common and making one or two along the way is normal. The key is recognising them quickly, adjusting your approach and remembering that leading is as much about learning as it is about guiding others.
Rethinking success in your career
Stepping into a lead role isn’t about proving you’re the most senior engineer in the room. It’s about redefining what success looks like. As a senior, you’re measured by the quality of your own work. As a lead, success is measured by how well the team performs, how confident they feel in tackling challenges and how effectively the project moves forward.
That shift can feel uncomfortable at first. You may miss the satisfaction of long stretches of coding or the clear feedback loop of solving technical problems yourself. But leadership brings a different kind of reward: seeing others grow because of your support, watching a team deliver something greater than the sum of its parts and knowing you played a role in making it possible.
Choosing the lead path isn’t the only way to grow your career, but for those who feel ready, it opens doors to a broader kind of influence and impact. With preparation, self-awareness and the willingness to learn, it can be one of the most meaningful steps you take in your professional journey.
Ready to accelerate your technical career?
Explore our latest tech roles and discover opportunities where your expertise is valued and supported.
