What Actually Makes a 10x Engineer

The term “10x engineer” gets thrown around a lot, usually with an eye-roll. And fair enough. The stereotype of the lone genius who pulls all-nighters and writes ten thousand lines of code in a weekend is mostly a myth. But the idea behind it? That some engineers have an outsized impact compared to their peers? That's absolutely real.

We've placed hundreds of engineers across companies of all sizes. And the ones that hiring managers come back and rave about are never the fastest coders. They're the ones who changed how the team works.

They're Builders, Not Just Coders

The first thing you notice about these people is that they think about the product, not just the code. They ask why something needs to be built before asking how. They push back on features that don't make sense. They suggest simpler solutions that achieve the same goal. They care about the thing they're building, not just the technical puzzle of building it.

A coder implements a spec. A builder questions whether the spec is right. That difference matters more than most people realise.

They Make Everyone Around Them Better

This is the real multiplier effect. The best engineers we've seen don't just produce great work themselves. They raise the bar for the whole team. They write code that other people can actually read and learn from. They do code reviews that teach, not just nitpick. When a junior developer is stuck, they don't just give them the answer. They walk them through the thinking.

They also do the unglamorous stuff that makes a team faster. Setting up CI/CD properly. Writing documentation that people actually use. Refactoring the messy parts of the codebase that everyone else steps around. They see the whole system, not just their ticket.

They're Creative Problem Solvers

Here's a pattern we see over and over: a team has been stuck on something for weeks. They bring in one of these people, and within a few days the problem is solved. Not because they're faster at typing, but because they approached it from a completely different angle.

The best engineers are creative. They draw from experience across different domains. They've seen enough patterns to know when something has been solved before in a different context. They're not afraid to throw away code that isn't working and start fresh with a different approach.

This kind of creativity can't be tested with LeetCode. It shows up in how someone talks about problems they've solved, the questions they ask, and the way they break down ambiguous challenges.

They Care. That's the Whole Secret.

Strip away all the technical stuff and the one thing every great engineer has in common is that they genuinely care about what they're building. They're not just showing up for a paycheque. They get frustrated when something is buggy. They get excited when they ship something clean. They take pride in their craft.

You can't train this. You can't incentivise it. You either find people who have it or you don't. And when you do find them, you do whatever it takes to bring them on board and keep them happy.

How to Spot Them

These people rarely have the flashiest resumes. They're not always at FAANG companies. They might be at a 20-person startup where they built half the product. Or they might be the person at a big company who everyone on the team quietly depends on but who never gets the spotlight.

Here's what to look for:

• They talk about problems and products, not just technologies.
• They can explain complex things simply.
• They ask questions about your team and your product before asking about compensation.
• They've built things outside of work because they wanted to, not because they had to.
• When you ask about a past project, they light up.

These people are rare. They're not going to come to you through a job posting. You have to find them, recognise them, and move quickly. Because everyone else is looking for them too.