---
aliases: ["Sarah O'Connor"]
Is A: Person
Tier: "3rd 🥉"
Tags: ["Podcast Guest"]
---
# Sarah O'Connor

Engineering director at a large US-based tech company, leading multiple teams across infrastructure and platform engineering. Sarah appeared on the podcast to discuss engineering career ladders, the IC vs. management track decision, and how to design progression frameworks that actually work for engineers at different career stages. She has extensive experience both as an individual contributor who reached the staff-plus level and as a manager who now oversees engineering directors.

## Notes

- Uniquely qualified to discuss career ladders having experienced both sides; her perspective bridges the IC and management worlds
- Shared a practical, open-source career progression framework that several listeners adopted at their own companies
- Thoughtful about the failure modes of career ladders, including "title inflation" and the tendency to conflate seniority with management
- The episode generated significant discussion in the community, particularly around the "senior engineer plateau" topic

## Collaborations

- [[24q1-podcast-season-1]] — recorded episode on engineering career ladders
- [[topic-team-leadership]] — discussed career progression and engineering management
- [[procedure-podcast-guest-outreach]] — connected through the engineering management community on Twitter
