Job Review of Tech Lead

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When a group of web and software developers works together on a project, there is that one individual who oversees the overall process and makes sure everything stays on track. This person is a tech lead. With a great job title comes great responsibility, we say. While the role sounds super cool, it does come with a list of demanding job responsibilities. Here is a brief job review of a tech lead in this week’s #TalentvisJobReview.

At a Glance

In short, a tech lead is a specialist who manages a team of technical staff and IT developers at a software or tech company. Aside from leading a team of IT experts, a tech lead often backs up IT staff that are unable to carry out duties and addresses technical difficulties, including software development, projects, and product launches. This is why tech leads are expected to know all the inside out of IT, which usually takes up years to master. 

Job Responsibilities

In general, the scope of the job of a tech lead may typically look like this: 

• Overlook development of all deployment pipelines.

• Work with a team of developers and help them with the deployment process.

• Optimize and automate the deployment process.

• Maintain the infrastructure that supports a company’s or client’s applications.

• Ensure that best DevOps practices are followed.

• Make sure that the services are up and running at all times.

• Assist in developing and maintaining continuous integration pipelines.

• Hire and manage the DevOps team.

• Mentor freshers and help them grow.

• Manage AWS and infrastructure costs.

• Encourage and build automated processes wherever required.

• Implement various development, testing, automation tools, and IT infrastructure.

As tech leads are in charge of both technicalities and a team that executes them, here is a brief explanation of how they need to carry out product development and team leadership:

Ensuring Product Development

Tech leads play a critical role in supporting an IT team to create a product that meets quality standards, as they are in charge of product quality. This includes implementing procedures to test and validate assets before they are forwarded deployment. They are responsible for selecting appropriate programming languages, frameworks, design patterns, and tools for product development. They must understand how to respond to product-related questions from stakeholders such as the product owner, development team, business analysts, and project managers.

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In Charge of the Team’s Performance

Tech leads must know how to best communicate with all team members beyond the technical aspects. It means they need to learn about each team member's skills, shortcomings, and pursuits, so if there is any hurdle along the way, the tech lead can back it up. Sometimes it is challenging to let a team member know about a mistake they make, so a good tech lead will need to master the art of active listening too, not just giving comments and commands. Tech leads are also in charge of strategizing and managing an onboarding strategy for new members that will suit the current team dynamic, as they know best about what the company needs.

Skills and Qualifications

For this role, a bachelor's degree in IT-related discipline, like computer science or informatics engineering is required. This is because tech leads need to understand the overall IT development process and details, so they can closely monitor their developers’ progress and are able to provide solutions throughout the project. Additionally, it will be really beneficial to obtain another certification in IT Project Management with an emphasis on Agile methodology.

As for technical skills, here are some competence required for a tech lead position:

• Minimum 5 years working experience in using Java or Golang

• Minimum 2 years experience working as a Technical Lead

• Experience working with MongoDB, MySQL, and Postgre

• Experience with Redis and Memcached, Elastic Search, Linux Syntax, CI/CD, Docker, Kafka, RabbitMQ, Refactor or Rewrite system

• Experience in PHP Frameworks is a plus

Tech lead is among the top-level management level, so one of the must-have qualifications for this job is adequate years of experience. This usually ranges from 4-10 years, according to the size of the company that is hiring for a tech lead. However, note that different companies may require different sets of skills and qualifications for a tech lead position. Experienced software engineers who demonstrate leadership qualities and keep up to standard on the latest innovations are likely to be interested in pursuing a tech lead job. 

Although there is no exact metric to measure leadership, a proficient skill in leading a team of IT developers should be at the heart of every tech lead. Leading an IT team is not merely about knowing all IT aspects; there needs to be a strong skill of leadership in order to become a tech lead. Problem-solving skills should go hand-in-hand with knowing how to delegate tasks to the right people and make sure all deliverables live up to the user’s expectations. They need to best utilize tools like Trello, Jira, Asana, and other Kanban boards if they want to maximize their project management. This is why not everyone can be a tech lead, even if that person has years of proven experience in the IT industry.

With more non-IT companies incorporating tech into their business operation and IT companies seeking to embrace digitalization, a tech lead job has been gaining exposure. With startups are actively looking forward to making their business operations more steady, a tech lead can best be the defining factor in keeping a startup's IT aspects mature. So, if you think you have what it takes to be a tech lead and are on the lookout for this job role, make sure you stay tuned to available job openings posted in Talentvis job portal. Good luck!

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