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Spencer Voorheis
Principal Engineer | Global Talent Management and Compensation at Amazon
Spencer Voorheis is a Principal Engineer at Amazon, currently based in Arroyo Grande, California. He possesses extensive experience in engineering and leadership roles, particularly within Amazon's technical teams. His work involves navigating complex technical challenges and adapting to evolving business needs, showcasing his ability to lead iterative design processes effectively.13
Professional Background
- Current Role: Principal Engineer at Amazon, focusing on innovative solutions and team leadership.
- Previous Experience: Spencer has held various key positions, including roles related to software engineering and technical leadership prior to his current position at Amazon.3
Contributions
Spencer is known for his active engagement in the Amazon Principal Engineering community, where he shares insights and fosters discussions on engineering practices. He has also contributed to topics such as "Swimming Lanes" in his professional posts on LinkedIn.2
Overall, Spencer Voorheis exemplifies a blend of technical expertise and leadership within one of the world's leading technology companies.
Highlights
The shift in mindset from individual contributor (IC) to manager is hard. You need to stop doing IC work yourself and start giving others the space to do that work - so that they can grow under your guidance and you can give yourself resources (time, mental bandwidth, relationships, visibility) to do more work with greater impact.
I know how hard it is because the first time I managed a team I failed to make that shift, and it almost cost me my career. I thought I was "leading by example", but really I was in my team's way and not spending enough time doing my actual job as a manager.
I can imagine certain situations where a player/coach might be appropriate and necessary - situations where you don't need, and shouldn't pay the overhead of, managers (a) thinking strategically or (b) growing their teams - in which case, are they really managers or actually supervisors? If you're not in a "feature factory", managers shouldn't be doing IC work.
For those of you making the shift from IC to manager, really think about how you can give yourself the room to stop doing IC work and instead to rely on your team.
Yes, you are accountable your team's commitments and deliverables. Yes, you may even have been the most capable IC on the team. Yes, if you just did the work yourself, you might meet your current commitments better/faster/stronger. Let that go. You'll never be a great manager if you don't invest in your team and give them the space to do their job (and you the space to do yours).
For those of you who have lived the IC to manager journey (or helped others do so), what have you found to be effective in making this shift?
https://lnkd.in/gUkSrv3b
#leadership #management #playercoachmyth
I hope that my earlier posts have shared my understanding of individual contributor technical leadership - specifically what my experience has been as a Principal Engineer at Amazon and with People eXperience and Technology (PXT).
I'm grateful for having had a hand in building this incredible community in PXT alongside my peers and I am excited to see it grow and get better with each new and unique person. I've been around a while, with a number of organizations and companies. For those of you who know me, you have seen how opinionated I can be, and I can honestly say that there is no place that I would rather be.
The only thing that I want is more Principal Engineers to join our ranks. That's where I could use your help.
We're looking for experienced senior-most individual contributor software engineering leaders - people for whom my posts have resonated, will bring their diverse perspectives and experiences to help solve really complex problems, and are driven by the idea of having a significant, meaningful, positive impact on the lives of millions of workers.
Please message me if you are interested and feel you have the right experience and skills to be successful!
#hiring #principalengineers #technicalleadership #amazon
