The company I work for, has devs/teams in multiple countries (at least 4 that I know of) and most of us work on the same product. The only people who will find it hard to survive are those who need to be hand held. Personally, I follow "asking for forgiveness is better than permission", except in production and money related activities. If I have an idea to test it, a new library (or design or whatever) to use etc, I rarely ask, I just do it. Once in a while it will be a waste of time, but no one gets upset because I tried something new.

Communicate effectively, be a self starter and above all, organize everything well so people aren't scrambling to find stuff when you are not around. Those would be my tips

Of course, everything in moderation and all that...