Catalog / LEAD-800
LEAD-800FlagshipTechnical Leadership
The operating habits of senior technical leaders: decision quality, stakeholder influence, risk framing, and executive communication.
Overview
About this program
Promotion past senior engineer is rarely about more technology. It is about scope, judgment, and the ability to move decisions through an organization. This program trains the specific behaviors that distinguish principal engineers and architects: framing trade-offs, owning risk, communicating upward, and building influence without formal authority.
Who this is for
- Senior engineers targeting staff, principal, or architect roles
- New architects and technical leads expanding beyond delivery work
- Engineering managers who need stronger architecture and risk conversations
Outcomes
What you will be able to do
- Frame technical decisions as trade-offs executives can act on
- Write architecture decision records and briefings that hold up under review
- Run risk conversations that build sponsor confidence instead of alarm
- Construct a credible advancement case built on visible leadership artifacts
Curriculum
Program modules
Delivered over 6 weeks of live tutor-led sessions, applied work, and structured review.
M01
Operating as a technical leader
- What actually changes between senior and principal scope
- Leverage: choosing work that moves the organization
- Decision rights and how to acquire them
- Time architecture for leaders who still ship
M02
Decision quality and trade-off framing
- One-way versus two-way door decisions
- Writing architecture decision records that survive scrutiny
- Quantifying trade-offs: cost, risk, reversibility, time
- Disagree-and-commit without losing credibility
M03
Executive communication
- The executive briefing structure: answer first, detail on demand
- Pre-wiring decisions before the meeting
- Translating technical risk into business language
- Handling challenge and pushback in the room
M04
Risk framing and delivery governance
- Risk registers leaders actually maintain
- Escalation as a designed process, not a failure
- Governance cadence for programs and platforms
- When to say no: capacity, scope, and integrity
M05
Influence and technical strategy
- Architecture review culture: running reviews people want to attend
- Mentoring and multiplying other engineers
- Writing technical strategy people can execute
- Building a reputation across organizational boundaries
M06
The advancement case
- Promotion packets and performance narratives
- Artifacts that make leadership visible
- Sponsors, managers, and the political reality of advancement
- Capstone: deliver an executive briefing for structured review
Labs & applied work
Hands-on components
- Live briefing simulations with structured instructor feedback
- ADR and technical-strategy writing workshops reviewed in cohort
- Capstone executive presentation with review-panel style critique
Rolling admissions
Ready to apply?
Apply any time. Admissions reviews your fit, confirms the next available cohort, and issues an invoice. Your seat is confirmed on payment.