The company prior to my last had 50,000 employees. We were still able to design and implement a solution for a core aspect of the division. I had to push in the

The company prior to my last had 50,000 employees. We were still able to design and implement a solution for a core aspect of the division. I had to push in the direction of Python + Redis, but when people saw the results, the higher-ups listened to our team. I think you're right that if a system is massive, there won't be many major changes to it. But that's true regardless of who has authority. It's always possible to solve smaller business problems with self-contained projects that can then be integrated into the larger system. But not if an environment is set up to prevent someone from doing this by forcing them to work within the constraints of the existing monolith. (It's possible to do this without creating a microservice, in some cases. The important part is simply to be allowed to experiment with alternate solutions, as long as it's not interfering with your main duties.)