Developer Career Ladder

Design comprehensive engineering career ladders with clear competency frameworks, promotion criteria, and evidence templates.

Purpose

Create career ladders that:

• Define expectations for each engineering level
• Provide transparent promotion pathways
• Establish consistent evaluation criteria
• Guide career development conversations
• Support fair, evidence-based promotions

Career Ladder Structure

Level Definitions

Individual Contributor (IC) Track:

Level	Title	Years Exp	Scope	Impact
L3	Junior Engineer	0-2	Individual tasks	Team
L4	Engineer	2-5	Features	Team
L5	Senior Engineer	5-8	Projects	Multiple teams
L6	Staff Engineer	8-12	Initiatives	Org/Product
L7	Senior Staff	12-15	Strategic	Company
L8	Principal	15+	Vision	Industry

Management Track:

Level	Title	Years Exp	Team Size	Scope
M4	Engineering Manager	5+	4-8 ICs	Single team
M5	Senior EM	8+	8-12	Multiple teams
M6	Director	10+	15-30	Department
M7	Senior Director	12+	30-60	Large org
M8	VP Engineering	15+	60+	Engineering org

Competency Framework

Three Core Competencies:

1. Technical Excellence (varies by level)
2. Leadership & Influence (increases with level)
3. Collaboration & Impact (increases with level)

Senior Engineer (L5) Example:

{
  "level": "L5",
  "title": "Senior Engineer",
  "competencies": {
    "technical": {
      "weight": 0.60,
      "expectations": [
        "Designs and implements complex systems independently",
        "Makes sound architectural decisions for team's domain",
        "Debugs issues across stack/services",
        "Writes high-quality, maintainable code",
        "Considers scale, performance, reliability"
      ],
      "evidence_examples": [
        "Led migration to new database with zero downtime",
        "Designed caching layer that reduced latency 70%",
        "Implemented monitoring that caught 3 production issues before customer impact"
      ]
    },
    "leadership": {
      "weight": 0.25,
      "expectations": [
        "Mentors 2-3 junior/mid engineers",
        "Leads technical design for medium-large projects",
        "Influences technical decisions beyond own team",
        "Improves team processes and practices"
      ],
      "evidence_examples": [
        "Mentored 2 engineers who were promoted",
        "Led design review process improvement, reduced time 30%",
        "Presented technical deep-dive at engineering all-hands"
      ]
    },
    "collaboration": {
      "weight": 0.15,
      "expectations": [
        "Partners effectively with PM, design, data",
        "Communicates technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders",
        "Drives consensus on technical decisions",
        "Contributes to engineering culture"
      ],
      "evidence_examples": [
        "Led cross-functional project with PM and design",
        "Wrote technical blog post (external or internal)",
        "Organized engineering book club"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Promotion Packet Template

# Promotion Packet: [Name] → [Target Level]

## Summary
[1 paragraph: why this person is ready for next level]

## Competency Evidence

### Technical Excellence
**Expectation for [Target Level]:** [Paste from ladder]

**Evidence:**
1. [Project/accomplishment with impact]
   - What: [Description]
   - Impact: [Quantified outcome]
   - Level indicator: [Why this demonstrates next-level work]

2. [Project/accomplishment]
   [Same structure]

### Leadership & Influence
[Same structure]

### Collaboration & Impact
[Same structure]

## Peer Feedback

"[Quote from peer feedback highlighting next-level work]" - [Peer Name, Role]

"[Quote from peer feedback]" - [Peer Name, Role]

## Growth & Trajectory

- [Example of taking on next-level work proactively]
- [Example of consistent performance over time]
- [Example of learning and adaptation]

## Recommendation

[Manager's recommendation: Ready now / Ready in X months / Not yet ready]
[Justification]

## Approval

- [ ] Manager: [Name]
- [ ] Skip-level: [Name]
- [ ] Director: [Name]
- [ ] Calibration committee (if applicable)

Using Supporting Resources

Templates

• templates/levels-competencies.json - Full ladder definition
• templates/promotion-packet.md - Promotion case template

References

• references/level-examples.md - Real-world promotion examples
• references/calibration.md - Promotion calibration process

Scripts

• scripts/validate-ladder.py - Check ladder completeness

---

Progressive Disclosure: Detailed level expectations, calibration processes, and edge cases in references/.