Software Engineering Attributes

		L1 – Software Engineer I	L2 – Software Engineer II	L3 – Software Engineer III	L4 – Staff Software Engineer	L5 – Senior Staff Software Engineer	L6 – Principal Engineer	L7 – Senior Principal Engineer
Software Design & Implementation	Quality Maintainability Code style Documentation Automated testing Ease of integration Rarity of defects	Writes consistently good and maintainable code, and needs little syntax/convention feedback. Consumes documentation and only asks teammates when documentation and effort don't yield results; produces basic documentation. Understands the basics of writing automated unit & functional tests. Consistently authors good test cases and achieves good test coverage with the help of their team. Writes most code without obvious bugs; knows how to avoid common problems.	Writes consistently great code requiring no syntax/convention feedback. Often adds new and relevant documentation to existing repositories of knowledge.	Understands the organizational value of great documentation and spends time to maintain, update and extend existing repositories of knowledge. Advises the rest of the team on quality of code, tests & documentation. Identifies & pragmatically applies better code practices or tooling.	Creates & structures documentation for large code projects concisely & consistently. Advises their team and other teams on best practices for code, test & documentation quality.	Considers (and proposes, when appropriate) new programming language & platform choices for the organization. Leads efforts to improve documentation & code skills sharing across teams. Makes the organization more effective through smart & pragmatic application of non-cutting-edge but useful code tools & patterns.
	Architecture Composition & decoupling Code interface design Technical debt Data locality Data formats Performance	Some architectural design/approach feedback may be necessary, but understands and applies feedback consistently. Is comfortable with the basics of code interface design; is learning to be more intentional. Understands and can usually recognize technical debt; can pay it down when advised. Has some experience with data formats, performance & locality; is learning quickly.	Strong architectural design & approach experience; only the most complex designs refined with senior teammates. Good intuition for code interface design; looks for opportunities to learn from other projects & teams. Understands and consistently recognizes technical debt; looks for opportunities to negotiate and pay it down incrementally, sometimes with prompting. Much more comfortable with multiple data formats & their tradeoffs; can anticipate most performance issues and make use of existing patterns to solve them.	Deep architectural & design pattern experience; consults for teammates on more difficult designs, and sets up new projects to ensure architectural success. Understands and plans with technical debt in mind; negotiates to pay it down incrementally and consistently, advises and prompts other teammates on technical debt. Can solve nearly all performance and data issues within the context of their team by applying experience & knowledge sharing.	Works with Architecture team regularly to define & refine cross-team architectural approaches with extensive experience & sharing. Understands technical debt as a long-term budgeting and risk management tool; articulates when to incur more* and when* to pay it down. Guides organizational adoption of new data formats, data stores, and patterns for performance & data locality; consults regularly across teams on similar issues. Sometimes employs prototyping for exploration of designs.	Succeeds by introducing simpler and time-tested approaches to technical problems to several teams. Fuses organizational strategy with technical architecture, including cross-team design & code sharing. Uses prototyping as a primary tool for rigorous design exploration.
	Running Systems Logging & metrics Profiling & debugging Monitoring & alerting Failsafe design Live production spelunking	Uses out-of-the-box tools to instrument and monitor systems; works well with the monitoring philosophy espoused by their team. Can do basic code profiling alone and optimize obvious offenders. Understands the basics of failsafe design; can implement with minimal prompting. Has some comfort working with live production systems, but may rely on teammates before taking actions.	Customizes out-of-the-box tools, may create small custom tools to instrument and monitor systems. Helps tune and change the monitoring philosophy on their team. Can do multi-application and multi-layer profiling alone and optimize almost all offenders. Strong understanding of failsafe design and regularly implements and occasionally mentors others on it. Unqualified comfort working with live production systems, debugging issues and taking careful actions with protections against destruction.	Creates new tools when necessary (and avoids doing so when not) to instrument and monitor systems; defines, realigns and understands cross-functional and cross-org implications of team's monitoring philosophy. Acts as a primary mentor on running systems for the rest of their team.	Can solve any profiling challenge at any layer of the stack, down to bits on disk/in RAM and up to multi-region clusters of data. Seeks out running systems mentorship opportunities across teams.

Team Collaboration & Advice	Project & Team Scope Size & number of projects Regular participation scope across teams	Is a member of one or two small or medium projects at a time. Works mostly with their own team.	Usually leads one or two medium or large projects at a time. Recognized for occasional participation in cross-team relationships and projects.	Acts as an ambassador and proactive connector for their team with other teams. Usually leads at least one major project and sometimes several medium projects on their team. Sometimes leads cross-team projects and plays a significant role in major organizational initiatives. Relied upon to keep complex projects on-track and sustainably implemented.	Works between and across teams almost as much as with their own. Participates in major projects and initiatives within and between teams, including working groups. Sometimes called in to mitigate large risks or solve tricky problems.	Significant contributor to Architecture team and leader of working group efforts across the organization.	Consults on numerous medium & large projects across the organization & actively connects different teams & systems. Leads major strategic technical initiatives across many or all teams.
	Technical Collaboration Communication of deeply technical subjects Ability to disagree accurately & constructively Reaching conclusions & committing	Communicates accurately about all technical subjects in their work—both speaking/writing and listening/understanding; spends more time learning than explaining. Can disagree and understand disagreement constructively and non-defensively. Fully embraces team solutions and commits to delivery without issue.	Leads technical explanations when appropriate; knows when to listen and give space to teammates. Approaches disagreement with inquisitiveness, empathy and the goal of a stronger solution; models this behavior for teammates; consistently disarms conflict. Guides team toward a decision, clarifies and gets buy-in, and holds self & teammates accountable for decision.	Facilitates technical discussions between teammates; has deep familiarity with technical topics under discussion at all levels.	Proactively seeks out gaps in technical understanding, especially cross-functional, and works with a variety of teammates to fill the gaps.
	Communication & Empathy Clear, concise communication Kindness, approachability and non-aggressive style Modifying communication based on listener's perspective Insight into listener's challenges & goals Ability to communicate technical subjects to a non-technical audience	Communicates concisely, effectively & clearly. May sometimes need minimal coaching on communication skills, but overall a strong speaker and listener.	Coaching on communication skills is rare and exceptional; very strong speaker and listener. Can usually explain technical subjects to non-technical teammates.	Can explain deeply technical subjects to non-technical teammates with ease.		Often takes the lead to communicate technical topics to technical & non-technical directors and business leaders.
		L1 – Software Engineer I	L2 – Software Engineer II	L3 – Software Engineer III	L4 – Staff Software Engineer	L5 – Senior Staff Software Engineer	L6 – Principal Engineer	L7 – Senior Principal Engineer
Ownership & Accountability	Productivity, Time & Task Management How much they can get done Ability to accurately estimate work tasks Effective prioritization of tasks & communication Timely completion of work Full and thorough completion of all commitments	Accomplishes tasks within an acceptable time frame. Can estimate work tasks with help from teammates & manager. Understands & acts in accordance with given priority of work tasks. Consistently delivers work tasks based on prior commitments and task definition to fulfill the specification of work.	Maintains a strongly consistent personal velocity of work tasks. Estimates work tasks accurately in most cases, with minimal oversight. Understands, negotiates & applies work priorities correctly. Knows when to conclude conversations, meetings, and pre-work tasks in order to complete work on time. Accomplishes nearly all work tasks in a timely manner; and raises an alarm early when tasks are off schedule. Thoroughly vets work requirements and helps refine them to fulfill the intent of the requirements.	Leverages own abilities and practices to mentor and improve the productivity of the entire team.	Successfully manages cross-team commitments and work completion. Improves productivity of teammates across multiple teams.
	Project Accountability Finding & filling gaps to complete projects Effective communication with project stakeholders Aiding others to reach project completion	Avoids surprising stakeholders whenever project expectations change; communicates changes early and often. Consistently communicates with project stakeholders about expectations.	Proactively finds gaps in project plans and works with stakeholders to specify them. Effectively communicates project status and expectation changes without prompting. May occasionally help teammates overcome obstacles and complete project work.	Consistently helps teammates overcome obstacles and complete project work.	Enables and improves cross-team collaboration by helping individual teammates and working with stakeholders.	Works with organizational leaders to improve project accountability across many or all teams.
	Production Support Availability & responsiveness to production issues Appropriate & complete communication during production issues Effective escalation and management of production issues Thorough task & communication follow-ups for production issues Participation in RCAs and follow-up work	Participates in team on-call or escalation procedures and can resolve basic issues. Communicates effectively to team about production issues. Escalates issues appropriately. Takes good notes about production issues. Participates in follow-up retrospectives and completes assigned work as requested.	Can comfortably and effectively resolve issues outside of their immediate scope of experience. Proactively identifies risks for production issues and works with stakeholders to resolve.	Leads definition & refinement of team on-call or escalation procedures. Can resolve nearly all issues escalated within their team. Communicates about production issues effectively with public & leadership. Acts as primary owner of production issues and thoroughly oversees them to completion. Leads RCAs, definition & assignment of follow-up work.
	Autonomy & Self-Starting Ability to self-train on new projects & technologies Resourcefulness in finding own answers Awareness of the balance between consulting teammates and making progress	Dives into new projects & technologies with curiosity and a drive to understand. Maintains a healthy amount of urgency and consistency in their work. Makes effective use of existing documentation, examples and other resources to gain a solid understanding before relying on teammates. Knows how to ask good questions of their teammates and does so after trying options on their own. Has awareness of rabbit holes and doesn't burn too much time on their own before consulting teammates.	Gains adequate understanding of projects that lack good documentation or usage examples through systematic learning, triage and discussions. Contributes knowledge back to projects to enable self-starting of other teammates. Very rarely falls down rabbit holes.	Achieves expert-level knowledge of new systems & technologies through rigorous learning, curious testing and prior experience. Takes primary responsibility for improving projects to enable self-starting by other teammates. Avoids rabbit holes through self-discipline, awareness and resourcefulness.
		L1 – Software Engineer I	L2 – Software Engineer II	L3 – Software Engineer III	L4 – Staff Software Engineer	L5 – Senior Staff Software Engineer	L6 – Principal Engineer	L7 – Senior Principal Engineer
Brand & Relationships	Product & Business Team Relationships Integration into product & business team operations Quality & depth of relationships with product & business stakeholders	Understands how product & business teams adjacent to theirs operate. Builds & maintains a friendly relationship and open channel of communication with product team counterparts.	Works proactively with product counterparts to build strong relationships within and across teams. Knows and understands business stakeholders’ motivations as it affects their team.	Takes primary responsibility for relationships with product & business stakeholders within and across teams to better plan for and position their own team. Thinks about inter-team relationships strategically and work constantly to improve them.	Establishes strong relationships with product and business stakeholders across the organization to facilitate their own cross-team scope.
	Engineering Team Relationships Involvement in engineering strategy Representing own team within engineering org Quality of relationships with engineering leaders	Understands team & organizational engineering strategy and how they apply to their role & team. Works to represent self & team positively within the organization. May seek out relationships with engineering leaders for mentorship or broader context.	Informs team engineering strategy by working with their manager. Actively participates in execution and some planning of organizational engineering strategy. Seeks out relationships with engineering leaders to build understanding of organizational strategy.	Decides & collaborates on team engineering strategy with manager & teammates. Sometimes involves self in organizational engineering strategy. Seeks to build strong relationships with engineering leaders across the organization.	Effective relationship builder throughout the engineering organization. Often involved in strategic organizational plans.	Very effective relationship builder among most or all engineering leaders, regardless of function or relative team relationship. Proactively involved in and often leads strategic organizational decisions and plans.	Unquestionably strong relationships with all engineering leaders in the organization. Represents role model strategic engineering values and expertise. Creates & effectively manages many organizational strategy plans.
	External Representation Thoughtfulness in positively connecting self and team back to the brand (company, team, self) Prominence & results from external representation of company	Always represents self, team & company positively to external audiences. Thinks about how external communication affects the brand and plans accordingly, sometimes with help from teammates or leaders. Not generally expected, but certainly encouraged to represent company & team externally (e.g. blog posts, meetup group talks, conference speaking).	Might be more proactive in seeking out external representation opportunities. Contributes some external blog posts.	Contributes & solicits blog post opportunities from teammates.	Consistently represents self, team & company through excellent blog posts. Sometimes represents self, team & company with external speaking engagements.	Consistently represents self, team & company with external speaking engagements. May participate in industry working groups on behalf of company.	Acts as primary contact for any relevant industry working groups to represent company. Known among some industry groups for reputation at company.	Well-known among industry groups for reputation at company. Regularly cited & invited as an expert within industry conferences for expertise relevant to company.
		L1 – Software Engineer I	L2 – Software Engineer II	L3 – Software Engineer III	L4 – Staff Software Engineer	L5 – Senior Staff Software Engineer	L6 – Principal Engineer	L7 – Senior Principal Engineer
Innovation	Contributing to Product Enhancements Contributions to the product roadmap Creating new abilities for the product team	Understands drivers behind product roadmap items as it affects their team.	Sometimes participates in roadmap feedback with product team. Looks for opportunities to simplify product & technical design.	Regularly participates in the creation of the team roadmap & ensuing feedback. Builds a reputation for simplifying product & technical design through proactive conversations.	Often helps refine roadmaps across teams based on technical strategy & constraints. Helps to define & create new product abilities by changing technical strategy or constraints.	Proactively seeks to create or redefine roadmaps with product & business counterparts.	Widely respected for important contributions to product roadmaps across the organization.
	Driving Efficiency of Systems & Practices Opportunities for customer-impacting performance improvements Continuous improvement of development, team and organizational practices to gain speed through efficiency	Takes responsibility for customer-impacting performance of systems on which they work. Sometimes thinks about team practices; may suggest improvements to team or manager.	Seeks to understand and vet performance characteristics of new and old systems; shares methods & knowledge. Regularly observes team practices & processes and suggests improvements to team or manager.	Consistently pursues improvements to performance, starting with the impact to customers. Thinks critically about team practices & processes and regularly discusses improvements with leads & manager. Observes organizational practices & processes and sometimes collaborates across teams to improve them.	Applies cross-team experience to provide consistent and replicable performance improvements for customers. Regularly discusses, tweaks and seeks feedback on organizational practices & processes.	Takes ownership & responsibility for organizational practices & processes and their continuous improvement.
	Collaborating on Patents Surfacing patent opportunities Submitting patent applications Protecting the brand via patent pre-clearance for innovations	Understands company patent strategy and may surface patent opportunities to team & manager. Collaborates on patent applications if asked. Understands outside patent clearance guidelines before writing new software.	Often thinks about and surfaces patent opportunities to team & manager.	Regularly surfaces patent opportunities & risks to manager & Patents team.	Surfaces cross-team patent opportunities & risks to Patents team. Ensures participation from team members in idea disclosure and review processes. Works with Patents team to find ways to accomplish goals with minimized risk with respect to outside patents. Works with Patents team to ensure company protectable subject matter is identified during collaborations with third parties.		Takes primary responsibility for organizational patent opportunities & risks. Works proactively with Patents team to understand & refine strategy. Provides opinions & due diligence relating to purchasable patent portfolios when asked.
		L1 – Software Engineer I	L2 – Software Engineer II	L3 – Software Engineer III	L4 – Staff Software Engineer	L5 – Senior Staff Software Engineer	L6 – Principal Engineer	L7 – Senior Principal Engineer
Vision	Technical Strategy Mapping Ability to articulate a vision for the future of a technical context	Articulates a coherent future vision for a component or components that they own within a larger system.	Articulates a coherent future vision for whole systems and several components for which they have responsibility.	Articulates a coherent future vision for many systems tended by their team. Often assists teammates with building and articulating visions for their responsibility areas.	Articulates a coherent future vision for systems that span teams, or many systems across teams. Helps define the model of what good & appropriate technical visions comprise.		Takes primary responsibility for building & articulating organization-level technical visions. Owns the definition & communication of models describing good technical visions.
Integrity & Ethics	Fiscal Responsibility Spend carefully and only when it's in service of team & company goals Ensure timely & accurate accounting of business expenses Understand cost impact of tools, applications & services Understand financial drivers of the business	Spends carefully and only when it's in service of team & company goals. Ensures timely & accurate accounting of all business expenses. Understands relevant financial drivers behind projects or business initiatives.	Seeks out and understands overall cost impact of components for which they have responsibility.	Proactively takes responsibility for cost management of team-owned systems & resources. Looks for opportunities to increase cost efficiency of team-owned systems & resources.
	Privacy & Security Understanding and applying privacy & security principles Handling user data appropriately Reporting privacy & security concerns	Understands basic security & privacy principles; always applies them to daily work. Understands the importance & gravity of handling user data and does so responsibly without exception. Immediately reports privacy or security concerns to manager or Privacy/Security teams.		Works proactively with Privacy & Security teams to help refine technical strategy based on those constraints.
	Honesty & Accuracy Realistic work estimates Humility about lack of knowledge or experience	Understands and always tries to give consistent and honest work estimates. Usually understands the limitations of their own knowledge and retains humility about their experiences.	Almost always understands the limitations of their own knowledge and retains humility about their experiences.	Always understands the limitations of their own knowledge and retains humility about their experiences. Encourages humility in others through coaching.
Leadership	Mentorship & Guidance Effectively mentoring and guiding teammates one-on-one Understanding the balance between giving answers and providing opportunities to learn Seeking out mentorship from teammates in particular areas Growing teammates to build redundancy or replacement	Knows when to seek out mentorship to grow their own experience.	Sometimes mentors teammates one-on-one with or without prompting. Always treats mentored teammates with respect and kindness, regardless of their experience.	Proactively mentors teammates one-on-one without prompting. Seeks out opportunities to train other teammates with their knowledge & skills to create team redundancy and backfill ability.	Often mentors teammates across teams based on experience & expertise. Takes full responsibility for their own succession on their team, including planning, coaching, mentorship & training.	Serves as a role model for mentorship within the engineering organization. Proactively seeks out mentoring relationships. Helps improve mentors.
	Broadcasting & Knowledge Sharing Comfort speaking on technical subjects to groups of engineers Seek out opportunities to share unique expert knowledge or experiences with broad groups of teammates Share knowledge externally via the company technical blog	Feels comfortable explaining technical subjects to their own team. May broadcast to broader engineering groups through Tech Talks or the company technical blog.	Feels comfortable explaining technical subjects and receiving feedback across teams, whether formally (Tech Talks) or informally. Contributes to the company technical blog on a regular basis. May seek out speaking opportunities at local user groups or conferences.	Likely seeks out speaking opportunities at local user groups or conferences.		Habitually seeks out opportunities to share pragmatic experience and expert knowledge with teammates and external engineers via Tech Talks, local user groups and conference speaking engagements.	May speak externally on cross-functional topics to more diverse non-technical audiences.
	Influence & Alignment Persuading and getting alignment across diverse groups of teammates to accomplish a goal Understanding the balance and power of making quick decisions with incomplete information	Can persuade some direct teammates based on the merits of a technical approach. Makes well-informed technical decisions with all or nearly all of the information required.	Balanced with good listening, can persuade their entire team of particular tactical approaches to problems.	Regularly achieves strong alignment with their own team. Sometimes persuades other team leads of a new approach based on sound tactical or strategic reasoning.	Regularly influences multiple teams to align around a cross-team goal. Can deal with some information ambiguity in decision making, but may make most decisions based on solid evidence.	Consistently works at a strategic level, influencing technical & non-technical decisions to achieve cross-team alignment on major near-term goals.	Successfully shapes organizational strategy with long-term considerations from technical architecture. Can persuade teammates at a tactical level with a lot of information, or the entire organization with limited information and sound, relevant experience.	Strongest technical influencers in the organization, with widely held respect and very forward-thinking plans.

Software Engineer Leveling Matrix

Software Engineering Attributes