JS Jared Smith Staff Engineer

Topic guide

Engineering leadership

The hardest engineering leadership decisions at startup scale aren't about people — they're about commitments. What slice ships first. What hire comes second. What rituals survive the team doubling. The posts below cover the sequence from one engineer to fifteen, the hire orders that work, and the operational patterns that don't break under growth.

Read sequentially if you're at the start of that arc. Skip to the post that matches the bottleneck you have right now — every one of these is a teardown of a decision I'd defend, with the failure modes attached.

The reading order

  1. 1.

    The Pre-Series-A AI Startup Hiring Plan: Who to Hire, in What Order, and Why Most Get It Wrong

    The full sequence from founding engineer to fifteen, with the comp framework and the mis-leveled hires to avoid.

    December 29, 2025 9 min read

  2. 2.

    From One Engineer to Fifteen: What Co-Founding Taught Me About Engineering Leadership

    What changes at each scale boundary. The shift from delivery to leverage to org design.

    January 12, 2026 8 min read

  3. 3.

    How to Manage a 4-Person Engineering Team Without Becoming a Manager

    The rituals that work at this size — 1:1 cadence, planning loop, decision-making — and the failure modes when you outgrow them.

    October 27, 2025 8 min read

  4. 4.

    How I'd Hire a Staff Engineer at an AI Startup

    The interview loop, the failure modes, the senior-vs-staff calibration that produces correctly-leveled hires.

    February 23, 2026 10 min read

  5. 5.

    The 'Smallest Possible Slice' Heuristic for Shipping Complex Features

    The leverage move that defines senior IC work. Smaller than MVP. Earns the next slice.

    November 10, 2025 8 min read

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