You’re paying senior money. The team still waits for you to say yes.
The new person starts. You stay copied into everything. Vendors still call you. Someone asks, “Can you just check this before we move?”
None of it feels unreasonable. The risk still sits with you, so stepping back too early doesn’t feel sensible. If it goes wrong, it’s your name on it. So you stay close.
Six weeks later, the new person is busy. So are you. That’s a month and a half of senior pay, and the hard calls still come back to your desk.
When you ask me to find someone senior, I want to know what you’re hoping to hand over. More work? Or some of the decisions you currently have to make?
Both are valid. But they’re different briefs.
If it’s ownership, what can they decide without you? Budget, vendor choices, who’s on the team. If that list is hard to write, that’s the conversation to have before the search.
Someone who owns the result but can’t change what goes into it ends up explaining, not leading.
If the decisions don’t move, you’ve bought capacity with a senior title.
