- All engineers begin in the Engineering Path
- At E5, you may choose:
- Engineering Path
- Management Path
- Specialist Path
- Role/title does NOT directly reflect level (to avoid bias)
Scope: Self & own tasks
- Complete fully specced tasks with guidance
- Deliver most work on schedule
- Actively seek coaching and improvement
- Work towards self-sufficiency by end of internship
- No ownership (learning phase)
Timeframe: 3–6 months
Scope: Self & own tasks
- Complete tasks with minimal guidance
- Seek coaching and improve continuously
- Be resourceful in solving problems
- Understand assigned technical areas
- Collaborate well with team members
- No ownership (still developing)
Timeframe: 6–12 months
Scope: Project & team
- Work independently on tasks
- Handle more complex work
- Take initiative and responsibility
- Understand codebase/product/system
- Suggest improvements
- Meet deadlines consistently
- Accept and act on feedback
- Mentor interns
- Maintain self-driven learning
- Co-owns area with guidance
Timeframe: 1–3 years
Scope: Project & peers
- Deliver medium to large features independently
- Own a component/system end-to-end
- Strong system and architecture understanding
- Drive improvements proactively
- Collaborate across teams (Product, Ops, etc.)
- Provide constructive feedback
- Maintain high productivity
- Continuously improve skills
- Follow best engineering practices
- Owns a service/feature/component
Timeframe: 1–3 years
Scope: Own team & peers
- Strong understanding of system architecture
- Make informed technical trade-offs
- Identify and solve problems proactively
- Influence team decisions
- Mentor engineers and unblock others
- Handle complex technical challenges
- Strong communication skills
- Participate in hiring
- Strong ownership of area (performance, DX, monitoring)
Timeframe: ~2 years
Choose:
- Engineering Path
- Management Path
- Specialist Path
Scope: Multiple teams/projects
- Communicate complex systems clearly
- Align with company strategy
- Drive technical direction
- Make high-quality decisions
- Reduce system complexity
- Lead adoption of new technologies
- Improve team performance
- Owns multiple projects/components
Timeframe: ~2 years
Scope: Multiple teams/projects
Scope: Whole organisation
Scope: Industry
Scope: Own team & product delivery
- Lead projects (planning, sprint, retrospectives)
- Communicate with non-technical stakeholders
- Manage team performance and growth
- Conduct reviews, OKRs, 1:1s
- Provide feedback and coaching
- Identify and handle poor performance
- Help define team direction
- Project delivery & people growth
Timeframe: ~2 years
Scope: 5–15 engineers
Scope: Engineering team
Scope: Organisation
Scope: Industry
Scope: Whole team
Scope: Multiple teams/components
- Deep expertise in a specific system/component
Timeframe: ~2 years
Scope: Multiple teams/projects
Scope: Organisation
Scope: Industry
Not a promotion — assigned to Senior Engineers inclined toward project management
- Project planning and management
- Ensure delivery timelines
- Work with Product Manager
- Provide direction to team
- Remove blockers
The designation or title should be designed to reflect the engineer’s role and domain. Format: [role], [domain], [additional role]
- Software Engineer
- Software Engineer, iOS
- Senior Software Engineer, iOS, Team Lead
- Senior Software Engineer, Payments
- Software Development Ladder
- Buffer Engineering Framework
- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WuErzbXJcsbJEip6Ul3ltBo88CIPslx9v91UZHt3rJY/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.p9yh52q2wifp
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/developerkaki/posts/1488596714819570/
