The customer's problems are different in the different roles, and the work and the rewards differ because of that. What that looks like here is that the custome

The customer's problems are different in the different roles, and the work and the rewards differ because of that. What that looks like here is that the customer of the Line engineer is external and the customer of the Staff engineer is internal. Relationships to internal or external customers are different - based on trust, confidentiality, shared culture, and the overriding fact that you work for the same or different organizations. Impact at the Staff level frequently requires a step back from coding. External customers generate revenue. Internal customers operate as cost. That's the Profit center / Cost center division. Line engineers create value through new capabilities in market and in maintaining customer relationships - through code. Staff engineers create value through improving efficiency inside the organization - so Line engineers can deliver more. If customer revenue is recurring, returns from customer relationships compound. In comparison, Staff engineers need to demonstrate their impact as compounding returns on efficiency. That can be creating tools or creating policy -- whatever it is your work has to align with greatest impact. That may not be code.