The role of a senior software engineer totally is to handle bugs and produce docs. The difference is that seniors should expect to work on more difficult system

The role of a senior software engineer totally is to handle bugs and produce docs. The difference is that seniors should expect to work on more difficult systems, bugs, and documentation tasks. When we don't value docs and bug fixing, we create undocumented and buggy code. When we don't value it by relegating it to junior developers, we miss opportunities to mentor others by both explaining the system at a high level and also using failures as teachable moments at the line level. A Senior developer who shows understanding of multiple systems at a high level (making docs) in an organization as well as being able to understand and deconstruct the work of others (fixing bugs) consistently is qualified for a higher level role where they work across multiple teams of developers.