Squarespace Career Growth & Development

How do you structure mentorship and technical learning for engineers?

I believe strong mentorship and technical learning work best when a team has a balanced mix of experience. That creates clear opportunities for junior engineers to learn from more experienced teammates, while giving senior engineers meaningful opportunities to mentor and expand their impact. 

As engineers grow into more senior roles, I intentionally create mentorship opportunities for them. I believe mentorship is valuable for the mentor, not just the mentee. Teaching is one of the best ways to deepen your own understanding, reinforce good technical habits, and grow as a leader. On our team, mentorship often looks like having a dedicated person to go to for questions, onboarding support, pair programming or whiteboarding sessions, PR reviews, guidance on architecture docs and feedback on work breakdowns.

Beyond learning through execution, code review and iteration, we also make space for shared technical learning as a team. We have a weekly forum to talk through technical challenges, align on solutions, and share knowledge from recent work, whether that’s something new someone learned, a design decision worth discussing or lessons from something that did not go as planned.

What internal mobility or upskilling programs have you launched recently?

I really value creating an environment where engineers can grow in different directions over time. Internal mobility is an important part of that. At Squarespace, engineers have the flexibility to explore opportunities on other teams when there is a strong fit, and managers work together to make those transitions as seamless as possible.

On the upskilling side, a major recent focus has been helping engineers thoughtfully incorporate AI into their day-to-day work. We’ve encouraged experimentation with new tools as part of the development workflow and created space for engineers to share what’s working, what isn’t and where these tools are most effective. That shared learning has helped the team build fluency quickly while also being intentional about where AI adds real value. I believe upskilling works best when it is built into everyday team culture rather than treated as a separate activity.

How do you identify and support future technical leaders?

In my experience, future technical leaders are usually the people the rest of the team already trusts and naturally looks to. They are strong in their domain knowledge and consistently deliver high-quality work, but what really sets them apart is how they elevate the people around them. These are the people who are always lending a hand, giving actionable feedback, improving team processes and proactively sharing knowledge. They also tend to be strong communicators, keeping stakeholders informed, surfacing blockers early and, most importantly, creating space for different voices on the team to be heard.

To support future technical leaders on the team, I focus on understanding where they want to grow and making sure they have the right opportunities to get there. That might mean giving them ownership of a large cross-functional initiative, creating opportunities to mentor others or supporting them in a team lead capacity if they are interested in management. The key is pairing clear feedback with intentional stretch opportunities so they can build leadership skills through real experience.