This is a great take, even within the same firm I've found huge mismatches in expectations when a "senior" is hired for soft skills, but internally the role ali

This is a great take, even within the same firm I've found huge mismatches in expectations when a "senior" is hired for soft skills, but internally the role aligns to hard skills - or visa versa. Throwing a project master at a hard tech problem will usually result in disaster. However the same is often true of a hard tech researcher. Eventually people tend to acquire relevant skills from both sides or move into management.