Career Ladder Inspiration · Engineering
Blendle's engineering career framework
Career growth matrix for Technology and Engineering roles at Blendle. Covers competencies across Work, Drive, and Fit categories with 3 proficiency levels.
Company Blendle|Year 2026|Discipline Engineering|Tracks TBD|License
Scroll horizontally to explore all 3 levels
Clone this templateLevel 1 - Operation & Execution | Level 2 - Tactical | Level 3 - Strategic | |
|---|---|---|---|
Skills Skills that require no talent | Be on time, be prepared, take notes, do extra, bring energy, work moral, body language, be coachable, use 1 password and full disk encryption ;). | No description available | No description available |
Skills Basic skills | Writing, tech savvy (word/excel/mac/windows), language skills (ENG, DE, NL). Talk English. | No description available | No description available |
Skills Programming & Design Sensible standards & defaults | * Follow the best-practices repository[1] | * If something is missing, you propose, discuss, decide and write down the new default | * Know when and how to choose a library for common use cases * Know what the impact and long term costs are of choosing non default options/external libraries in terms of maintenance and cognitive load for other developers |
Skills Programming & Design Use industry-accepted programming best-practices | * Know of some coding principles like SOLID and realise when code violates it * Follow the Best Practices as documented in the Blendle Best Practices github repo * If a small change in existing code can make a big impact, make it part of your scope of change | * Know how to refactor code that violates these principles * Know when to refactor existing code before adding your own, and DO IT | No description available |
Skills Programming & Design Clean code | * You write readable code, with clarity of intent for yourself and others * When you write code comments, you write them to describe why a piece of logic works the way it does, not what it does * Don’t write “clever” code | No description available | No description available |
Skills Programming & Design TDD | * Minimize external dependencies * Writing unit tests first * Design/write testable code * Apply the red/green/refactor cycle * Understand that your tests are part of your application and should largely follow the same best practices | * Apply the "outside in testing" pattern * Know how to use testing feedback to drive/refactor your code * Gain insight into how to choose a good testing setup for different situations, knowing that code confidence is the goal, not testing itself * Know/understand the difference between declarative tests and imperative tests, and when you use which * Understand the testing pyramid, and consequences of testing something at a certain level in the pyramid | * Add performance tests when applicable * Keep test suites performant |
Skills Effectiveness | * Evaluate your changeset in the bigger scope of Blendle, don’t work in isolation * If something seems to be quick and easy, validate this, don’t skip analysing the cost of the solution * Constantly reevaluate what you are doing; is it still the most efficient way to get closer to our goals? Don’t fall for the sunk cost trap, periodically take a step back and reevaluate * Understand the difference between productivity and efficiency/effectiveness. You can be extremely productive (ie produce a lot) but it could not bring you closer to your goals in an efficient/effective way. | * Find a balance between creating business value as quickly as possible and keeping sight of stability and longer-term quality * You know how to deal with deadlines and pressure, for example by involving your peers to find the right solution * You don't rush into implementation details without having a shared understanding of the overall goal * You are able to break work up in logical tasks, and correctly estimate how much work each of those tasks roughly is. * Unexpected setbacks are part of the job, you communicate about them early and clearly. Doing so does not signal failure on anyone's part, it signals strength in communicating and planning ahead. | * Understand the reasoning behind previous decisions, but recognise when the previous decisions may no longer be the most reasonable |
Skills Agile development | * You realise that requirements will change throughout the lifetime of a project and change direction when this has become clear to you | * You periodically take a step back and look at if a change in priorities is necessary | * You fully embrace change, always design your software so that it can deal with it as well as possible, and constantly try to test and verify if we are still building the right thing |
Skills Verbal Communication | * Leave your emotions outside of technical discussions, focus on technical merits * Listen to others without assuming you know what the other person is going to say * Be curious, even if you think you know, let someone else explain, so you know even more at the end of a conversation * Be open-minded, let others challenge your beliefs, and challenge your own beliefs | * Be able to explain technical (challenging) topics with both technical and non-technical people * Communicate constructively, know how to express yourself, try to convince others of your points but be open to change your stance. You can have strong principles, but hold them loosely | * Be able to discuss technical topics with both technical and non-technical people, leading to a joint agreement |
Skills Written Communication | * Document for the sake of clarity and to increase the chances of a successful project outcome, don’t document for the sake of documentation | * Be as expressive as required, but as concise as possible. * You have a clear view of what the purpose of documentation is; both in validating your own ideas, removing ambiguity in terminology and communicating to other developers | * You take ownership of project documentation, don’t consider it a fire-and-forget task, but keep circling back to it, updating it when needed throughout the lifecycle of the project |
Skills Continuous Learning | * Stay hungry, eager to learn more, continue to improve your own skillset | * Stay up to date with experts in your field, follow blogs, read books etc. * You have clear focus areas that you are (or are becoming) an expert in, and your colleagues know when to find you. You realise that you can’t be an expert in every field | * Be a T-shaped professional: a good developer has a mix of specialised knowledge and broad knowledge * Be a champion for new technology or processes that are worth pursuing by more people |
Skills Teamplayer | * Be selfless, help others * Give some of your time to others, and others will give you some time back | * If you level-up, be proactive in helping others level up with you * You realise that the end goal is improving Blendle as a whole, either through projects you are involved in, or by helping others succeed in theirs * Having fun doing your work is important, but you realize that to move Blendle forward, doing less fun tasks is also part of the job | No description available |
Skills Self Sufficiency | No description available | * Know how to work independently if required, but ask for help when needed | * You are able to get a clear understanding of the scope of a task and its requirements before you start, allowing you to focus on finishing the task without external input if required. |
Skills Systems Design & Architecture | No description available | * You can do “Back of the envelope[2]” style calculations when you add a new feature or system so that you know beforehand what the technical requirements of the system are | * You are able to reason about a system in the context of all systems at Blendle, and actively try to reduce coupling between them in a similar manner as with code |
Skills Code Review | * If you lack knowledge about a piece of code you are reviewing, you ask questions, there are no stupid questions, and there is no better place to learn than as close to the actual source code as possible * When asking for code reviews, your intent is to improve our software quality and try to learn something new in the process, and to make sure your colleagues stay up to date with changes in the code base. You don’t just try to get something “approved”. * As the PR author, don’t ignore questions because you think they are irrelevant or wrong, answer why you think they are irrelevant or wrong * Implementing pull request feedback is part of your regular workload, you plan accordingly | * Apply the “one change per pull request” rule, but don’t use it as an excuse to ignore valuable feedback on your changes * Once you start a pull request review, you see it through to the end, replying to questions from the author, suggesting changes and making sure the PR can get merged without unnecessary delays. * When reviewing a PR, you focus on the correctness of the business logic, and validate/question the intent of the change, not just on stylistic changes. | * You are able to critically review code, and take responsibility for making sure a pull request ends up in a better state after your review (if needed). |
Skills Feedback & Development | Ask for feedback, have personal goals. | Ask feedback, have personal goals. Give your peers/lead feedback. Prepare 1on1's. Lead your own development. Share your dreams. | Lead the feedback en development of yourself and others. Do 1on1's. Improve yourskills in this area. Work with HR to take this Blendle wide to a next level. Feed the MT with information about how people are doing. |
Skills Self regulation Stay happy/healthy. | Find your optimal working rythm. Implement a good system (Getting Things Done). | Improve and stick to your optimal working rythm. Improve your system (GTD) Take care of your body and mind. Help peers/team with this. Bring it up. Flag it when you see unhealthy situations. | Improve and stick to your optimal working rythm, Optimize your system (GTD) and teach others. Take care of your body and mind, stimulate others to do so. Flag and fix unhealthy situations. Implement concrete improvements for yourself and your team on this point. |
Skills Initiative | Show initiative, come up with ideas. Be proactive and selfstarting. Ask for help. | Take initiative, come up with ideas. Be proactive and selfstarting. Ask for help. Question the status quo. Challenge peers. | Take initiative, come up with ideas. Question the status quo. Make plans. Challenge all levels. Help others to take initiative. Be proactive and selfstarting. Ask for help. |
Skills Motivation | Check your own level of motivation and work on keeping it high. Find out what motivates you. | Check your own level of motivation and work on keeping it high. Know what motivates you. Know wat motivates others, help them stay motivated. | Check your own level of motivation and work on keeping it high. Know what motivates you. Know wat motivates others, help them stay motivated. Flag it when you see motivation dropping somewhere. |
Skills Contribute & share | Add value, contribute to meetings/projects. Share stuff you did or found out. | Keep adding value. Share knowlegde or skills. Always look for ways to contribute. | Add value, contribute and share knowledge and skills. Teach others how to contribute and share. Be thought leader. |
Skills Ship, deliver, close | Focus on finishing stuff. | Focus on finishing stuff. Flag it when projects/discussions have no end. | Focus on finishing stuff. Flag it when projects/discussions have no end. Enable others to ship and are proud of the result. |
Skills Focus | Do one thing at the time and don't get distracted. | Do one thing at the time and don't get distracted. Help others focus. | Do one thing at the time and don't get distracted. Help others focus. Help Blendle as a whole focus. |
Skills Speed = habit Flexible | Remember to stay light on your feet and flexible. | Stay light on your feet and flexible. Build stuff fast without losing sight of quality. Help the team keep balance. | Stay light on your feet and flexible. Build stuff fast without losing sight of quality. Help the team and Blendle as a whole keep balance. |
Skills Data | When making a decision, always look at the data. | When making a decision, always look at the data. Stimulate others to use data as a source of inspiration. | When making a decision, always look at the data. Inspire others to make decisions based on data. Improve data use Blendle wide. |
Skills Opportunities | Spot opportunities and bring them up. | Spot and seize opportunities and bring them up. Put them to good use. | Spot, seize and create opportunities. Help other recognizing oppertunities and create space. Don't let it go to waste. |
Skills Mentality & Responsibility | Feel responsible for stuff outside your direct responsibility (role or tasks). | Feel responsible for stuff outside your direct responsibility (role or tasks). Be co-owner of problems. Take full responsibility. Make calls. | Full responsibility for a (or several) domains. Act like it by setting out plans, giving direction |
Skills Informed & Engaged | Take notice of things happening at Blendle. Respond to questions. Try to give input. | Take notice of things happening in and outside Blendle. Respond to and ask questions. Try to give input. Try to inform others and engage others. | Inform and enage others. Voice vision and strategy. |
Skills Attend & (be) present | Attend team meetings, Blendle wide meetings. | Attend team meetings, Blendle wide meetings. Give input, share your voice/ideas. Aks questions. Present. | Initiatate and lead meetings (also Blendle wide). Make them effective. Make others attend and participate. |
Skills Value, DNA, Culture | Read and understand the Blendle values. | Carry out the Blendle values. | Live and breath the Blendle values. Add to the culture: improve it (flag and eliminate flaws). |
Skills Planning, Look ahead | Think about how the things you do (or don't do) look in 3 months. Look ahead. | Think about how the things you (and your team) do (or don't do) look in 3, 12, 24 months and make proposals to your lead. | Think about how the things you do (or don't do) look in 3, 12, 24 months and make proposals to leads/teams/MT. Make plans with budget and runway in mind. |
Skills Impact | Think about how you could make the biggest impact for Blendle. Make decisions based on impact. | Think about how you, your peers and your team could make the biggest impact for Blendle Take initiative. Make decisions based on impact. | Think about how you, your peers and your team and Blendle as a whole could make the biggest impact for Blendle. Make proposals to the leads/teams/MT. Reward based on actual contribution. |
Skills Improve | Think about how you and your team could improve. | think about how you, your peers and your team could improve. Take initiative. | think about how you, your peers, your team and Blendle as a whole could improve. |
Skills Alignment | Think about if what you and your team are doing is aligned with the rest of Blendle. | Think about if what you and your team are doing is aligned with the rest of Blendle. Flag it if that is not the case. Align yourself. | Align MT, teams, peers and individuals with each other. |
Framework by Blendle · Licensed
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