Leading Without Authority as an Individual Contributor

As software engineers advance in their careers, they often face a unique challenge: how to lead and drive change without formal management authority. This becomes especially relevant for senior engineers, staff engineers, and technical leads—roles that require influence across teams and organizations.

Different organizational sizes call for different approaches. Over the past few years, I’ve had the chance to lead a team that grew from 5 members to more than 20 developers. The journey showed me that the career path of an IC leader is very different from that of a people manager. In this post, I want to reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and the lessons I learned along the way.

For me, any IC role above Senior Software Engineer qualifies as an IC leader—whether that’s a Tech Lead, Staff Engineer, or Principal Engineer. These roles demand not just technical expertise but also the ability to influence and guide others without direct authority.

The Reality of IC Leadership

IC leadership is fundamentally different from people management. You can’t rely on hierarchy or reporting lines to execute your vision. Instead, your influence comes from expertise, trust, and relationships. And the way you apply those depends heavily on team size and structure.

Small Teams: The One-Pizza Team

In small teams (4–6 members, often called “one-pizza teams”), ICs wear many hats and have outsized impact. Collaboration is close, influence is direct, and contributions are highly visible.

Here’s an example structure for a small co-located team:

In this setup, hierarchy matters less than shared ownership. IC leaders should:

• Lead by example—through code quality, reviews, and knowledge sharing
• Hold regular 1:1s to understand teammates’ challenges and goals
• Create space for informal mentoring and ad hoc conversations
• Document onboarding guides, deployment steps, and common workflows early

In small teams, IC leaders must stay hands-on with implementation. If the leader can’t build a feature, it’s hard to expect the team to succeed. Even if you’re learning as you go, charting a path forward sets the tone for the rest of the team.

Growing Teams: Co-Located and Remote Mix

As organizations scale, teams diversify. You may end up with a mix of co-located and remote developers, or even multiple “pizza teams” across an org. That shift introduces new leadership challenges.

Team Alpha: Mixed (Remote + Onsite)

• Overlapping hours (2–4 daily) are crucial
• Junior remote devs need more pairing and context, not just async docs
• Weekly checkpoints help surface blockers and maintain momentum

Team Beta: Fully Remote

• Harder to build culture—guardrails matter (standards, linting, tests)
• IC leaders should partner closely with managers to keep direction clear
• Too much triaging from the leader can stifle ownership

Team Gamma: Fully Co-Located

• Easiest to mentor, collaborate, and ship quickly
• Mirrors the “pizza team” style but at larger scale

Scaling Further: Multiple Pizza Teams

Once you’re leading across multiple teams, your role shifts. A Principal Engineer, for example, won’t review every PR or join every standup. Instead, you’ll:

• Invest in developing lead developers across teams
• Participate in org-level forums: architecture boards, vendor evaluations, roadmap discussions
• Drive written agreements, processes, and technical design records to maintain clarity at scale

At this stage, leadership is less about daily implementation and more about enabling leaders beneath you to succeed.

Key Strategies for Leading Without Authority

1. Lead by Example

Your technical decisions and work ethic set the bar.

2. Build Technical Credibility

• Be the go-to expert in your domain
• Share knowledge (talks, docs, mentoring)
• Prevent tech debt before it grows

3. Master Influence

• Listen first
• Use data to back decisions
• Tie technical choices to business goals

4. Foster Collaboration

• Host informal forums for discussion
• Enable cross-team knowledge sharing
• Resolve conflicts through shared objectives

5. Develop Others

• Mentor juniors
• Celebrate contributions
• Help teammates grow into new challenges

Overcoming Challenges

Resisting the “Do It All” Trap

It’s tempting to handle everything yourself, especially early on. But scaling requires delegation, trust, and shared ownership.

Navigating Politics

Tech decisions are rarely purely technical. Build relationships, understand stakeholder incentives, and communicate broader impact.

Long-Term Impact

Leading without authority develops skills that serve you in any career path:

• Strategic thinking about tech + business
• Communication across audiences
• Emotional intelligence with diverse stakeholders
• Systems thinking at both org and tech levels

Key Takeaways

IC leadership is about creating impact through influence, expertise, and collaboration. Titles don’t define leadership—trust and competence do.

Some of the most influential figures in tech history were ICs whose ideas, code, and vision reshaped entire organizations. You don’t need authority to lead—you need clarity, credibility, and the courage to set the example.