Career Ladder Inspiration · Engineering
Glossier's engineering career framework
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.
Company Glossier|Year 2026|Discipline Engineering|Tracks TBD|License
Scroll horizontally to explore all 5 levels
Clone this templateJunior Engineer | Software Engineer | Senior Engineer | Staff Engineer | Principal Engineer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Skills Technical Skill | Reasonable understanding of core engineering concepts. Focused on expanding understanding and growing as an engineer. Basic understanding of team tools and processes. | Solid understanding of core engineering concepts. Focused on growing, learning tools and current processes. Strong background in best-practices like testing, source control, and agile planning. | Master of at least one domain. Aware of industry best practices and trends. Has acquired at least one major skill outside of core coding such as monitoring, documentation, or performance optimization. | Highly knowledgeable in major parts of the technology stack. Technical owner of significant components. Sustained track record of creating improvements around stability, performance, and scalability. | Deeply knowledgeable in major parts of the technology stack. Technical owner of large parts of the code base. Track record of creating major improvements in large business-critical systems. |
Skills Delivery & Execution | Capable of taking small well-scoped components and completing them with mentoring. Works with senior members to ensure steady progress. | Takes well-scoped components from larger projects and completes them in a reasonable time frame. Knows when to ask for help. Can own small-to-medium features end-to-end. | Gets a lot done. Responsible for complex tasks and completes them despite roadblocks. Requires very little oversight. Shows initiative beyond knocking tasks off a list. | Prolific contributor to both core projects and experimental work. When presented with complex problems, able to reduce complexity to get more done with less work. | Consistently able to reduce complexity. This ability to manage and simplify complexity is the hallmark of the Principal Engineer. Creates architecture that shapes large parts of the business. |
Skills Communication & Influence | Learning how to communicate well and deliver feedback. When given unclear requirements, learning to ask for clarification. | Communicates well. Capable of delivering feedback to peers and manager. Knows how to ask for clarification and ensures assumptions are vetted. | Known outside their core team as a technology leader. Participates extensively in code reviews. Works effectively with non-tech members. Identifies problems with requirements. | Strong abilities to influence without requiring reporting authority. Facilitates cross-team work. Capable of driving groups of disparate interests to decisions and seeing them through to impact. | Excellent abilities to influence without reporting authority. Effectively facilitates cross-team work. Influential far beyond their individual group. Capable of driving and seeing through complex decisions. |
Skills Mentorship & Growth | Focused on learning engineering principles, tools, and practices with a view to being more self-sufficient. | Starts to participate more in the technical design process. By promotion, capable of mentoring interns and new engineers. | Mentors others via code reviews and pairing. Frequently presents at team meetings. Identifies and suggests areas of future work. | Provides guidance, direction and helps colleagues build and produce better outcomes. Capable of setting short to medium term strategic direction. | Broad impact across the tech organization. Impact felt across the team in quality of engineering, the ways code is written, and the underlying design of systems. |
Skills Strategic Thinking | Understanding how their work fits into the larger picture for their team. | Focused on learning about a specific component or product sub-area and mastering that component. | Understands the business that their code supports. Uses this knowledge to influence task prioritization. Can identify risks in code, features, and design. | Can usually anticipate and plan for technical problems. Capable of setting short to medium term strategic direction for part of the technology stack. | Significant strategic vision. Can take a high-level 3-5 year plan and translate that into a strategic technology roadmap. Identifies areas of critical need based on future growth. |
Framework by Glossier · Licensed
View sourceMore engineering frameworks
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.
Blendle
Career growth matrix for Technology and Engineering roles at Blendle. Covers competencies across Work, Drive, and Fit categories with 3 proficiency levels.
Capgemini
Software engineering grade ladder from Capgemini covering 6 competency areas across 5 levels. Created by UK engineering teams to understand ethos, values, and expectations at each level.