Junior and mid-level engineers can no longer push AI-assisted code without a senior signing off at AWS
10.03.2026 12:47
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Junior and mid-level engineers can no longer push AI-assisted code without a senior signing off at AWS
I'll just leave this here and say THANK YOU 🙏!
Credits: "Mighty women from history" by Karen Hallio
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One team I worked with blocked focus time for a month. Story completion went up 𝟯𝟱%. Bug reports dropped 𝟮𝟴%.
Stop treating your team's focus like it's free. It's the most expensive resource you have.
Here is what helps:
- 𝗗𝗲𝗳𝗮𝘂𝗹𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝘀𝘆𝗻𝗰. Not everything needs an instant reply
- 𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸 𝗳𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲. Protect 2-4 hours for deep work daily
- 𝗕𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀. Combine five scattered pings into one message
- 𝗗𝗼𝗰𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗿𝘀. If it's asked twice, write it down once
Now imagine this happening 5-10 times a day. Your best engineers aren't shipping slow. We keep breaking their flow.
It takes about 𝟭𝟱 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝘂𝘁𝗲𝘀 of uninterrupted work to reach flow state. One notification can break it, even if the developer never opens it.
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀?
Context switching.
You send a colleague a "quick" Slack message. Takes you 𝟱 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱𝘀, but it costs them 𝟮𝟯 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝘂𝘁𝗲𝘀 to get back into deep focus.
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The Dreyfus model describes 5 stages of skill from Novice to Expert. The jump from mid to senior isn't about more technical knowledge; it's about judgment and the willingness to sit with uncertainty instead of rushing to code.
𝟲. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝗜
As AI takes over more implementation work, the gap between mid-level and senior gets wider, not narrower. AI can generate code all day. But it can't take a vague requirement and break it down into something a team can execute.
𝟱. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝗰𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗺 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗽
Mature engineers ask for feedback: "What am I missing?" before shipping, not after. They want the bad news early. They also know what not to build, when to cut scope, when to walk away, and when to say "this isn't worth it."
𝟰. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴
Running meetings. Mentoring juniors and mid-levels differently. Influencing other teams to use your solution instead of building their own. Knowing when to give up a project you built.
𝟯. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺
Before writing any code, a mature engineer can explain what problem they're solving, why it matters, what the risks are, and what happens if Plan A fails. Most engineers jump to solutions. Senior engineers stay with the problem longer.
𝟮. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿
Code reviews are about growing engineers, not catching bugs. When a PM asks for estimates, we don't hand over 17 numbers. We explain why certain choices are expensive and how that affects what we ship.
𝟭. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗿𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗺𝗯𝗶𝗴𝘂𝗶𝘁𝘆, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗱𝗲
A mid-level engineer can implement a well-defined Jira ticket. But if you hand them something vague like "we need to improve performance," and they stall. Senior engineers turn that into "here are two small projects and one thing we should cut."
Seniority is about engineering maturity, not titles. You don't wake up a senior after a promotion. It's a spectrum, and most of us are further behind on it than we think.
Here are 6 things that separate senior engineers:
𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗮 𝗦𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗿 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿?
Some think that having 10 years of experience makes you a senior. Yet I saw many "seniors" with 1 year of experience repeated 10 times. They worked on similar projects, with a similar tech stack and a similar level of complexity.
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