Rephonic
Artwork for StaffEng
Artificial Intelligence
Software Engineering
Babylist
Productivity Tools
Cosmopolitan (cosmopolitan Libc)
Claude Code
LUA
Cloud Code
Stripe
Shopify

Conversations with software engineers who have progressed beyond the career level, into Staff levels and beyond. We discuss the areas of work that set Staff-plus level engineers apart from other individual contributors; things like setting technical direction, mentorship and sponsorship, providing engineering perspective to the org, etc.Hosted by David Noël-Romas (@davidnoelromas) and Alex Kessing... more

PublishesMonthlyEpisodes27Founded5 years ago
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Technology

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Artwork for StaffEng

Latest Episodes

Karla joins Alex and David from Sydney, where she's been building security-conscious AI workflows at Lorikeet--a customer service automation company where writing code by hand has officially become "artisanal."

www.lorikeetcx.ai/

x.... more

Dylan Vassallo is an engineering manager at OpenAI leading the People Innovation Labs team — an eng, product, and design team embedded within the People org, building AI-powered tools for recruiting, HR, internal comms, and the employee experience.

more

Hosts: Alex Kessinger & David Noël-Ramos 

Guest: Karynn Ikeda — Former Engineering Manager → AI Enablement Program Manager at Babylist @ktikeda

Karynn Ikeda shares the full arc of how Babylist adopted AI across its engineering organization — from a... more

Will Maier leads growth engineering at Stripe, where he's spent the last five years working across nearly every surface of the product. His background isn't CS — it's the history of science — and he's been through enough industry shifts (racking serv... more

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Recent Guests

Karla Burnett
Security-focused engineer at Lorikeet
Lorikeet
Episode: StaffEng with Karla Burnett: You're all 100x engineers...now what?
Dylan Vassallo
Engineering Manager for People Innovation Labs at OpenAI
OpenAI
Episode: A look inside an engineering team @OpenAI with Dylan Vassallo
Karynn Ikeda
Former engineering manager at Babylist, AI enablement lead
Babylist
Episode: How BabyList Accelerated AI Adoption in Engineering with Karynn Ikeda
Will Maier
Lead growth engineering at Stripe, guest on the episode
Stripe
Episode: I Haven't Opened an IDE Since November — Will Maier

Hosts

Alex Kessinger
Co-host and primary presenter for StaffEng; affiliated with StaffEng.
David Noël-Romas
Host and co-host for StaffEng; affiliated with StaffEng.

Reviews

4.9 out of 5 stars from 121 ratings
  • Thought-provoking and relevant! Excellent!

    This podcast really helped me accept that my experience as a Staff engineer is not unique in the industry, and the guests have some great advice. Picking up a lot of good nuggets from the conversations. Thank you!

    Apple Podcasts
    5
    CensoredUser
    United States4 years ago
  • great content

    please continue the interviews

    even if the information gets a bit repetitive initially. could be good reminder of the main principles of engineering.

    Apple Podcasts
    5
    Vinay`
    United States5 years ago

Listeners Say

Key themes from listener reviews, highlighting what works and what could be improved about the show.

Quality conversations with actionable takeaways for AI-enabled engineering workflows.
Guests share practical, experience-based insights that are useful for engineering leadership and career growth.
Great content; interviews are valuable though some topics feel repetitive over time.
Thought-provoking and relevant! Excellent! This podcast helped me feel less alone in Staff-level experiences.

Chart Rankings

How this podcast ranks in the Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube charts.

Apple Podcasts
#99
India/Technology
Apple Podcasts
#160
Japan/Technology
Apple Podcasts
#189
New Zealand/Technology
Apple Podcasts
#205
Brazil/Technology
Apple Podcasts
#234
Belgium/Technology
Apple Podcasts
#243
Singapore/Technology

Talking Points

Recent interactions between the hosts and their guests.

I Haven't Opened an IDE Since November — Will Maier
Q: What was your aha moment when AI began changing your work?
The shift began in late November, evolving from gradual improvements to a qualitative leap in what felt feasible, with tooling accelerating and impacting both daily tasks and strategic decisions.

Audience Metrics

Listeners, social reach, demographics and more for this podcast.

Listeners per Episode
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Frequently Asked Questions About StaffEng

What is StaffEng about and what kind of topics does it cover?

Conversations with senior engineers who operate at Staff-plus levels, focusing on how AI, tooling, governance, and organizational practices reshape software development at scale. Episodes cover practical impacts of AI assistants, security and risk management, velocity and guardrails, and the evolving role of staff-plus engineers in guiding teams through rapid tooling and process changes. Notable angles include governance models, cross-functional collaboration, and real-world stories about deploying AI-enabled workflows while maintaining auditability and safety. The show tends to spotlight hands-on experiences, tooling choices, and leadership perspectives that help organizations accelerate delivery without compromising security or quality.

Where can I find podcast stats for StaffEng?

Rephonic provides a wide range of podcast stats for StaffEng. We scanned the web and collated all of the information that we could find in our comprehensive podcast database. See how many people listen to StaffEng and access YouTube viewership numbers, download stats, audience demographics, chart rankings, ratings, reviews and more.

How many listeners does StaffEng get?

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What are the audience demographics for StaffEng?

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How many subscribers and views does StaffEng have?

To see how many followers or subscribers StaffEng has on Spotify and other platforms such as Castbox and Podcast Addict, simply upgrade your account. You'll also find viewership figures for their YouTube channel if they have one.

Which podcasts are similar to StaffEng?

These podcasts share a similar audience with StaffEng:

1. The Pragmatic Engineer
2. The a16z Show
3. Soft Skills Engineering
4. TBPN
5. Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats

How many episodes of StaffEng are there?

StaffEng launched 5 years ago and published 27 episodes to date. You can find more information about this podcast including rankings, audience demographics and engagement in our podcast database.

How do I contact StaffEng?

Our systems regularly scour the web to find email addresses and social media links for this podcast. We scanned the web and collated all of the contact information that we could find in our podcast database. But in the unlikely event that you can't find what you're looking for, our concierge service lets you request our research team to source better contacts for you.

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What guests have appeared on StaffEng?

Recent guests on StaffEng include:

1. Karla Burnett
2. Dylan Vassallo
3. Karynn Ikeda
4. Will Maier

To view more recent guests and their details, simply upgrade your Rephonic account. You'll also get access to a typical guest profile to help you decide if the show is worth pitching.

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