I certainly think that role is missing, but I don't think it's at a role of a staff engineer. In my experience, _The Therapist_ has the ear of a lot of senior

I certainly think that role is missing, but I don't think it's at a role of a staff engineer. In my experience, _The Therapist_ has the ear of a lot of senior people, and more importantly their trust. They understand the technical issues as well as the business problems, but more importantly understand the personalities and politics of the organization. These are the people who can convince people that if they give up a little, then they can get a lot in return. They generally tame strong-arm managers that are just looking for more headcount or more prominent projects that tend to drown out other projects or initiatives that are genuinely needed. Those people are an absolute necessity, and I think it's very tough for someone to be effective in that role if they don't have a solid technical understanding, but I also don't think that an engineer has the clout to wrangle people the way a _therapist_ needs to. In a small organization, maybe, but at a decent size, mid-sized company and larger it will need to be someone working on the business side, not development or IT operations