Team Lead
Every Engineering Team has one Team Lead: an engineer on the team who helps it coordinate, collaborate, develop, and succeed. This page explains who leads a team, what the role involves and what it doesn't, and how it's paid.
Team Lead is a responsibility within an Engineering Team, not a traditional managerial position or necessarily a promotion. An engineer of any level can hold it, and their level and Engineer Share stay the same.
A Team Lead is an enhancer, not a replacement. Having one doesn't take any responsibility away from the other engineers on the team.
Who leads a team
- Every team has exactly one Team Lead, and the lead is a member of that team.
- A lead leads one team. Like every engineer, a Team Lead belongs to one team at a time, so no one leads or belongs to more than one.
- Any level can lead. Exalynt offers the role to the engineer best placed to lead the team, whether they are Associate, Mid, Senior, or Principal.
- It's an offer. The engineer decides whether to take it on.
Exalynt decides who leads each team, as it decides who is on each team (details).
What a Team Lead does
A Team Lead helps create an environment where engineers can do excellent work together.
Help the team work well together
- Facilitate communication and coordination among the team, so people know what others are working on and where they can help.
- Encourage pairing, reviews, and knowledge sharing, so the team's knowledge doesn't sit with one person, including the lead.
- Promote sound engineering practices and technical consistency across the team's work.
- Encourage sustainable workloads and healthy collaboration. Notice when someone is overloaded, stuck, or losing interest, and help before it shows up in the work.
- Help engineers learn, grow, and pursue excellence. Get to know each engineer's strengths and what they want to get better at, give and ask for feedback, and make sure the people who did the work get the credit for it.
Keep continuity with the team's clients
- Keep the team aligned on its clients' goals and priorities, and on how each piece of work serves them.
- Maintain shared context across the team's client relationships, so whoever picks up a client's next block starts with what the team already knows.
- Maintain continuity with the clients the team supports. Know them, stay in touch, and help the relationship stay good over time. This adds to each engineer's own relationship with the client; it doesn't stand in for it.
- Identify and surface risks, blockers, and concerns early, to the client or to Exalynt as appropriate.
- Coordinate the team's operations responsibilities for products it owns on an operations plan, such as ownership handoffs, the escalation path, and operational health reviews. Being on-call stays with whoever is on the rotation, and this work is paid separately from the Team Lead Share (details).
Work with other teams
- Coordinate with other teams when the team needs help, or when another team needs overflow capacity or expertise (details).
- Welcome engineers helping from elsewhere in Exalynt, and give them the context they need to do good work from their first block.
The final say, used well
When the team can't reach a decision together, the Team Lead breaks the tie. The Team Lead has the final say on the team's technical direction and other team decisions.
We expect them to use it benevolently, and rarely:
- Most decisions don't need the lead. The engineer doing the work makes the decisions within their block, and the team settles most shared questions together.
- Step in when it's needed: when a decision is stuck, when it affects the whole team or several of its clients, or when the team's work needs to stay consistent.
- Listen before deciding. Hear the people closest to the work, weigh ideas on their merits rather than by anyone's level, and explain the reasoning behind the decision. Seek understanding and alignment
- Don't collect decisions. A lead who makes every call becomes a bottleneck and takes ownership away from the team. A good lead makes fewer decisions over time, not more.
Once a decision is made, the team commits to it, and anyone can still raise new information that might change it. A concern about how a lead uses the role can be raised with Exalynt like any other.
What a Team Lead isn't
A Team Lead isn't a traditional manager or supervisor, and having one doesn't take responsibility away from anyone else. In particular, the Team Lead:
- doesn't make every engineering decision,
- doesn't need to approve every change or implementation,
- isn't solely accountable for every engineer's output,
- doesn't need to assign every piece of work personally,
- shouldn't become a bottleneck for delivery, and
- doesn't replace any engineer's ownership and autonomy.
Every engineer still owns their work end to end, from understanding the problem to shipping it and showing the client what changed (details). Every engineer is still responsible for understanding the client and building a good relationship with them. A Team Lead makes the team stronger at all of this; they don't do it in anyone's place. Engineers keep real independence, make the decisions within their own work, and stay accountable for their own blocks. Team success is a responsibility the whole team shares (details).
Levels, pay, and who is on which team are Exalynt's to decide. Exalynt may ask a Team Lead what they've seen, but the decisions are Exalynt's. If a problem on the team is more than the lead can solve, they raise it with Exalynt.
A contributing engineer
A Team Lead is still a contributing engineer. They keep fulfilling blocks and earning the engineer payout for them, and staying in the code keeps their judgment grounded in how the software actually works.
- The lead's own blocks are ordinary blocks. They get the same engineer payout, the same client effort range as planning guidance, and the same shared engineering contribution as any other block.
- Leading happens alongside those blocks. Coordinating, sharing context, supporting teammates, and keeping continuity with clients are the overhead of the role, and the Team Lead Share pays for them.
- Leave room for it. A lead may take on fewer blocks of their own than they otherwise would, so they have time to lead well without letting their own blocks slip.
If leading starts crowding out the lead's own engineering, raise it with Exalynt.
How a Team Lead is paid
A Team Lead receives 5% of the Capacity Payout Basis for each block fulfilled by an engineer on their Engineering Team, whichever client the work is for.
Team Lead payout = Capacity Payout Basis × Team Lead Share
The Team Lead payout follows team membership, not which team a client is assigned to:
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It's earned on blocks fulfilled by the lead's team. The client doesn't need to be assigned to that team, so overflow for another team's client still counts.
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The fulfilling engineer's team decides which lead earns it. Every block has one engineer who fulfills it and is never shared, even when others review or pair on it, so every block earns exactly one Team Lead payout.
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It includes the lead's own blocks. When the Team Lead fulfills a block, they earn their engineer payout and the Team Lead payout for that block.
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Team Lead Share is 5%. It's the same at every level.
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It uses the standard Capacity Payout Basis for the size of block, not the client's price or Exalynt's revenue. It doesn't depend on who fulfills the block, their level, or where anyone lives.
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It's earned when the block is fulfilled. A block the client has bought but nobody has fulfilled yet earns no Team Lead payout.
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It's a separate allocation of the same basis. Like the engineer payout, the Team Lead payout is a Capacity Payout Allocation: a share of the block's Capacity Payout Basis, worked out on its own, so neither the fulfilling engineer's payout nor their teammates' team support changes. The client's price doesn't change either. Exalynt bears it out of what it would otherwise retain (details).
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It's instead of team support, not on top of it. A block's Team support goes to the fulfilling engineer's other available teammates. The Team Lead isn't one of them: supporting the team is the job the Team Lead payout pays for.
The Team Lead payout for each block:
| Block | Capacity Payout Basis | Team Lead payout (5% of basis) |
|---|---|---|
| Flex | $1,750 | $87.50 |
| Core | $3,500 | $175 |
| Dedicated | $7,000 | $350 |
Examples
Assigned client. Team Alpha serves Client A. An engineer on Alpha fulfills a Core block for Client A. Alpha's Team Lead earns $175 ($3,500 × 5%).
Overflow. Team Alpha normally serves Client A, but needs help, so an engineer from Team Beta fulfills a Dedicated block for Client A. The engineer stays on Beta, so Beta's Team Lead earns $350. Alpha's Team Lead earns nothing on that block just because Alpha is assigned to Client A.
More than one client. Team Beta serves Clients B and C. Beta's Team Lead earns the Team Lead payout on every block Beta's engineers fulfill for either client, and for any other client they help.
The lead's own block. A Team Lead fulfills a Dedicated block. They earn $4,200 as their engineer payout plus $350 as the Team Lead payout.
The Team Lead payout follows the blocks the team's engineers actually fulfill. If they fulfill fewer blocks, it's smaller. Exalynt confirms the role and the Team Lead Share with the engineer before they take it on.
Why it follows the team
A Team Lead's value is in helping their team work well: collaboration, alignment, shared practices, and the team's ability to deliver excellent work for every client it touches. The Team Lead payout reflects that ongoing responsibility to the team, not ownership of a particular client relationship.
Following the team also keeps the rule simple. Engineers can help any client in Exalynt without anyone having to work out which lead should be paid: the lead of the fulfilling engineer's team always is.
Frequently asked questions
Is becoming a Team Lead a promotion?
Not necessarily. It's a responsibility within your team. Your level and Engineer Share stay the same, and you earn the Team Lead Share on top of your normal payouts for the work of leading.
Can an Associate or Mid engineer be a Team Lead?
Yes. Any level can hold the role. Exalynt offers it to the engineer best placed to lead the team.
Can I lead more than one team?
No. Each engineer belongs to one team at a time, and a Team Lead leads only their own.
Does it matter who fulfills the block or where they live?
Only which team they're on. The Team Lead payout uses the same Capacity Payout Basis as every other payout, whatever the engineer's level and wherever either of you lives.
Does the client pay more because teams have leads?
No. Block prices are the same. The Team Lead payout comes out of what Exalynt retains.
Does the Team Lead payout reduce other engineers' pay?
No. The Team Lead payout and each engineer's payout are separate Capacity Payout Allocations of the block's basis. Every engineer's payout is still their Capacity Payout Basis × Engineer Share, known before they start the work, and teammates' team support is worked out separately too.
Do I earn team support as a Team Lead?
No. Team support goes to the fulfilling engineer's available teammates other than the Team Lead. You earn the Team Lead payout on every block your team fulfills instead, which pays for supporting the team. See Team support.
If I introduced a client, will my team be assigned to it?
Not because of the introduction. Exalynt assigns teams to clients based on what serves the client. If you introduced the client through the Exalynt Partnership Program, your partnership earnings are separate from your engineer and Team Lead payouts, and neither changes the other.
Can I turn down the role?
Yes. Exalynt offers the role, and you decide whether to take it on.
Am I my teammates' manager?
No. You help the team coordinate and collaborate, you look after how it works together, and you break the tie when the team can't decide, but your teammates own their own blocks and make the decisions within their work. Levels, pay, and team membership are Exalynt's to decide. If a problem on the team is more than you can solve, raise it with Exalynt.
Who decides when the team disagrees?
The team tries to reach a decision together first. If it can't, the Team Lead has the final say on technical direction and other team decisions. We expect the lead to listen, weigh ideas on their merits, explain their reasoning, and step in only when it's needed (details).
Does having a Team Lead mean I don't need to know the client?
No. A Team Lead enhances the team; they don't replace anyone. You still own your work end to end, and you're still responsible for understanding the client and building a good relationship with them.
Do I have to review or approve everything the team does?
No. Your job is to help the team work well, not to be a gate. Reviews and pairing happen across the team, and with engineers on other teams, wherever they help.
Do I still need to write code?
Yes. A Team Lead keeps fulfilling blocks, perhaps fewer than they otherwise would, so there's time for leading. Your own blocks follow the same client effort ranges as any other block.