I am the web developer who works for the marketing team described in the article. I don't really know where (or if) to draw the line between web developer and

I am the web developer who works for the marketing team described in the article. I don't really know where (or if) to draw the line between web developer and engineer, but in my career before taking this job I was the lead developer on dozens of large, complex web applications that went way beyond your standard brochure website. I never felt that the kind of stuff I was working on was somehow less important or not real "engineering". As for your the other points you raise about what to do when the marketing team is out of work: perhaps that would be an issue at other companies with less growth, but so far in about three years total working with Knewton (as a contractor and then as a full time employee) there has never been a moment where any of us were struggling to find something to do. There is a constant flow of large projects and firedrills and plenty of work to do in the icebox. These are projects that are important to the company's growth and vision, but would distract the product engineering teams from their jobs. The product teams have their sprints planned out and aren't able to punt on an important feature because the biz dev team needs help building a mock application for a meeting next week. The marketing team has the ability to set our own priorities and timelines and adjust those as the business's needs change. We are better able to react to emergencies than larger teams because we aren't beholden to clients and product managers to meet timelines established months ago. I am not trying to criticize how the other teams work--I understand the benefits of that workflow, and I can't imagine how you'd build large, complex applications without that kind of organization. However, for the kind of projects the marketing team handles, that sort of organization would be more of a hinderance.