Career ladder examples from leading teams

Artsy

Engineering career ladder from Artsy covering 12 competency areas across 5 IC levels from Engineer 1 to Staff Engineer. Based on their open-source GitHub framework.

Basecamp

Programming career ladder from Basecamp covering 6 competency areas across 5 levels from Junior to Principal Programmer. Emphasizes writing skill, autonomy, and simplicity.

BuzzFeed

Product design career ladder from BuzzFeed covering 6 competency areas across 4 levels from Product Designer to Principal Product Designer. Based on their open-source GitHub design repo.

Carta

Engineering career ladder from Carta covering 6 competency areas across 5 levels from Software Engineer I to Staff Software Engineer. Based on their public engineering leveling guide.

Dropbox

Engineering career framework from Dropbox covering 5 competency areas across 5 IC levels. Uses a 7-tier system focused on impact, with clear scope definitions at each level.

Buffer

Buffer is a fully remote B2B SaaS company offering social media scheduling, analytics, and engagement tools for creators and businesses. Their engineering org emphasizes simplicity, transparency, and asynchronous collaboration, balancing product velocity with a lightweight, values-driven culture. Their ladder is a good fit for teams that prioritize remote-first operations, product-minded engineers, and steady delivery over heavy infrastructure complexity.

GitLab

Engineering career framework from GitLab covering 6 competency areas across 5 levels from Associate to Principal. Based on their open-source handbook.

Glossier

Engineering career ladder from Glossier covering 5 competency areas across 5 levels from Junior to Principal Engineer. Inspired by Foursquare, Kickstarter, and Rent the Runway ladders. Distinguishes between Technical (Architect) and People (Manager) tracks.

Kickstarter

Engineering career ladder from Kickstarter covering 7 competency areas across 5 levels from Junior Software Engineer to Principal Engineer.

Medium

Engineering growth framework from Medium covering 6 competency areas across 5 levels from Engineer 1 to Principal Engineer. Based on their public growth rubric.

Meetup

Engineering career ladder inspired by Meetup's Maker/Manager framework covering 5 competency areas across 4 IC levels. Includes Architecture, Best Practices, Technical Mentoring, Process, and Communication.

Figma

Figma is a fast-growing B2B SaaS platform in the collaboration and creativity space. They operate a real-time, multiplayer design tool requiring deep systems engineering, performance optimization, and thoughtful product thinking. Their ladder skews toward product-minded engineers and is ideal for orgs where craft, collaboration, and velocity matter.

Etsy

Etsy is a large-scale marketplace operating at the intersection of B2C and B2B (independent sellers). Their engineering org values experimentation, reliability, data-driven decision-making, and scalable marketplace systems. Their framework is helpful if your environment mixes consumer behavior, search/discovery, and marketplace dynamics.

CircleCI

CircleCI is a B2B developer-tools company providing CI/CD automation for engineering teams. As a reliability-critical SaaS platform, their engineering org focuses on infrastructure, resiliency, security, and operational excellence. Their ladder fits teams building platforms, pipelines, or high-availability technical systems.

Spotify

Engineering career steps from Spotify covering 6 competency areas across 4 IC levels. Emphasizes squad-based culture, autonomy, and the Spotify model of tribes and guilds.

Square

Engineering growth framework from Square/Block covering 6 competency areas across 4 IC levels. Focuses on craft, scope, problem solving, and leadership.

Thumbtack

Engineering career framework from Thumbtack covering 6 competency areas across 5 levels from Engineer I to Principal. Emphasizes scope, ownership, and impact at each level.

Wise

Product management career ladder from Wise covering 6 competency areas across 5 levels from Associate PM to Product Lead. Based on their public career map.