How to Become a Lead Visionary Principle Solutions Engineer in 2025
(Because “Senior Software Engineer” just doesn’t sound disruptive enough)
So, you’ve mastered Kubernetes, solved race conditions at 3 AM, and can explain the difference between TCP and UDP during REM sleep. Congratulations. Sadly, in 2025, that only qualifies you as “pretty decent.” If you really want to make it big—LinkedIn-influencer-level big—you’ll need a title that’s longer than your salary negotiation email.
Enter: Lead Visionary Principle Solutions Engineer.
It’s not just a job. It’s an energy. A mindset. A PowerPoint with animated slides.
Let me walk you through how to become one.
1. First, upgrade your job title (mentally)
Before HR touches it, you must believe you are a Visionary Principle Solutions Engineer. Say it every morning while brushing your teeth. Bonus points if your toothbrush connects to Wi-Fi.
2. Master the holy trinity: Strategy, Architecture & Buzzwords
You’re not just building systems anymore—you’re architecting scalable digital value ecosystems.
Learn to casually drop phrases like:
- “We need to future-proof this integration pipeline.”
- “Let’s align the multi-cloud orchestration strategy with our data-driven OKRs.”
- “This is fine” (while watching prod go down).
3. Stop solving problems—start elevating conversations
Visionaries don’t fix bugs. They redirect them into Jira with high priority and a philosophical question.
Start asking things like:
“But is this the solution… or just a solution?”
Everyone will be confused. Perfect. That’s leadership.
4. Be the architect who doesn’t code (but reviews everything)
Your job is to say things like:
- “I wouldn’t implement it like this.”
- “Refactor it.”
- “We need a diagram.”
Never actually refactor anything. Your keyboard is for typing strategic emails and opening diagrams, not writing code.
5. Hold weekly sessions titled “Technical Vision Sync”
The agenda is unclear. The outcome is alignment. Always alignment.
Pro tip: Use a Miro board with 27 arrows and no labels.
6. Know at least one obscure technology nobody uses
Doesn’t matter if it’s practical. You must be the person who says:
“Have we considered rewriting this in Rust running on WebAssembly inside edge nodes?”
No one will know what you mean. You’ll sound visionary.
7. Have opinions. Strong ones. About everything.
- Microservices? Too many. We need macroservices.
- AI? Overhyped, underutilized, poorly fine-tuned.
- JSON? Outdated. Use YAML, suffer with dignity.
- Tabs vs Spaces? Both are wrong unless aligned with business goals.
8. Mentor people by asking cryptic questions
When a junior asks how to improve performance, say:
“Think about what performance really means… to the user.”
Then walk away. Slow nod. Leave them to transcend.
9. Be everywhere without being anywhere
You’re invited to all meetings. You turn your camera off. You say one sentence near the end:
“Let’s revisit this after alignment with stakeholders.”
Then you disappear like a legend.
10. Finally: Publish a Medium article
Bonus if it starts with “After 20 years in tech…” and ends with “…and that’s how you become truly agile.”
Include a diagram. Preferably one shaped like infinity.
Real talk (yes, seriously):
Jokes aside, to become a high-level engineering leader in 2025:
- Think strategically but understand deeply
- Be the bridge between tech and business
- Communicate like your success depends on it—it does
- Empower your team, don’t micromanage
- Stay hands-on enough to remain credible
- Champion long-term solutions over short-term hacks
- Advocate for architecture, security, scalability & adaptability
- Never stop learning—especially about your industry
Be the person who not only sees where tech is going—but drives it there with purpose.
With or without LinkedIn animations.
Now go forth, future Lead Visionary Principle Solutions Engineer.
Your keynote invites await. Just remember to update your title on Slack first.
#EngineeringLeadership #Innovation #NoOneKnowsWhatYouActuallyDo
