Señors at Scale - Software Engineering & Tech Leadership · Dan Neciu

Technical Leadership at Scale with Anemari Fiser (O’Reilly Author and Engineering Coach)

·52 min·3 clips

Anne-Marie Fischer says tech leads carry accountability when technical deliverables fail.

Dan introduces Anne-Marie Fischer as an engineering leader, coach, and O'Reilly author who has spent over a decade in tech. She also runs AF Level Up in tech, where she helps senior engineers and leaders build confidence, influence, and leadership range. The conversation starts with how she got into software engineering. She says informatics was an early choice in high school and felt like the obvious path in Romania. That origin story opens into a wider look at career growth. They talk about the move from software engineer to tech lead and then to product director. The biggest shift, she says, is accountability. As a tech lead, you are the person others turn to when the technical deliverables are not landing. The team shares the work, but the lead carries the responsibility. Dan pushes on how someone makes that shift from senior engineer. Anne-Marie answers that accountability is learned by stepping into situations that are uncomfortable. She recommends taking ownership before you officially have the title. That can mean leading an initiative with your tech lead or engineering manager instead of waiting for the role to arrive. The conversation also touches on how soft skills become part of technical leadership. She treats them as practical tools for real teams, not side topics. Her coaching and training background comes through in the way she explains what senior engineers struggle with most. The episode also references the large-scale transformations she led at Tuftworks, including monolith to microservices work and cloud migrations. Near the end, she and Dan talk about conferences she is applying to, including familiar hands-on tech and leadership events like We Are Developers and DevFest. The tone stays warm, direct, and grounded. It is a conversation about growing into leadership without pretending the job is easy.

As heard by us

A practical look at the ownership, confidence, and accountability that tech leads carry.

Anne-Marie Fischer comes across as a seasoned engineering leader who has spent more than a decade moving from software engineer to tech lead and product director.

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Why you'd press play

You want the real job description of a tech lead.

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