So she encourages all engineers to contribute in discussions, even if they aren’t always 100% certain. A Staff Engineer can recognize a good solution when they see one, and able to clearly explain its merits to other engineers, community members, managers or customers. Current and previous Staff Backend Engineers and Engineering Managers kindly agreed to talk to me in a series of one-on-one interviews. As someone considering the technical track to become a Staff Backend Engineer, I wanted to find out what exactly it entails. Much of what each engineer said overlapped, but each had a unique perspective based on their team and their particular experience within GitLab as an entity.
As it happens, that’s still more or less the trajectory that I’m on, but now I have a much better idea of what it means to be a senior member of the technical track. Gatsby is a remote-first, community-focused team working to build a high-performance, fun to use, accessible, and astonishingly flexible presentation layer for any data source. We are looking for a software engineer with accessibility expertise to work on our open source team. Join us in our mission to make website development fun by making it inclusive. While the staff engineer ensures success on their team, the principal engineer begins to transcend teams. And rather than finding solutions to problems, the principal engineer is now working on finding what those problems are in the first place.
Instead, they have their streaming platform, and all they want is to work on that one project. Google’s level system is certainly the most influential throughout the industry. Many smaller tech companies and departments use a similar system. One can see this just by looking at five of the biggest tech companies.
Level 1
They clearly state that to get a certain position, you’ll need X number of years and Y set of skill equals. Therefore, you know exactly where to direct your energy in order to improve your career. There will still be some level of discretion from managers, but levels generally make promotions far more straightforward. Things start to fall apart all because the company had no satisfying answer to give for why this employee wasn’t ready for a promotion or why that employee earns less than a coworker. Engineers at this level are expected to be competent, but not experts.
- You have experience with modern build tools such as Webpack, Buck, or Bazel.
- Strong software engineering practices and experience with the full software development lifecycle that includes coding, code reviews, testing, design/architecture, deployment, and documentation.
- Keep notes on things you’ve had to ask for help with, and practice those issues so you can do it independently next time.
At the same time, almost every career talk or panel that I’ve ever attended is by someone from the management track. Now I’ve always understood, at least at a high level, what a manager does and what the management track entails. Part of this is because the more senior roles in the management track have a high amount of visibility both internally and externally. The same is also true on the technical track, but to a much lower extent, resulting in a bit of mystery around those roles.
The main reason is that it provides clarity to your career path. Keep notes on things you’ve had to ask for help with, and practice those issues so you can do it independently next time. To get an idea of where your strengths lie in context, it is important to write down everything you do, as you know your work best. (This applies even if you’re not interested in a promotion – it’s good practice for your CV too!) Write down everything you’ve done, even if they are minor things. You may be surprised at looking back and seeing how much you’ve accomplished, and how you’ve made the product better. There are many ways in which a Staff Engineer can leverage their skill-set for impact outside their team.
Skaffold, Jenkins G, And Aws Iam Roles: Geoblink To The Rescue
Even one or two of the following can help others be more effective and efficient. A Staff Engineer reaches beyond immediate technical needs, independently considering the longer-term, and is always looking beyond for ways to have a broad impact. A Staff Engineer identifies and addresses cross-team problems that may otherwise fall through the cracks and liaises with management, Product and customers to steward delivery to completion. Nick Thomas, @nick.thomas identified that one way to thrive at the Staff level was to identify systemic improvements. This may involve slow, steady identification of system-level challenges, rather than solving immediate time-sensitive issues. Ash McKenzie, @ashmckenzie noted that reaching beyond his team can mean finding and identifying a niche that needs a champion, and working to improve it without oversight.
It’s also worth noting that each level is a slightly different job. Gaining a new level is not just recognition of a job well done but rather is actually a different role. Because of this, while we expect people to advance through our first few roles, starting at Sr SWE, it’s perfectly acceptable for an engineer to just stay at a given role for the rest of their career. If someone likes being a Sr SWE and doesn’t want to become a Staff engineer, that’s fine, we need Sr SWEs.
We are the leading modern data platform and the first database provider to IPO in over 20 years. Join our team and be at the forefront of innovation and creativity. Additionally, Netflix famously has a culture which values merit over hierarchy. Every engineer is a senior engineer because they seem to only hire engineers with years of experience.
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MongoDB is committed to providing any necessary accommodations for individuals with disabilities within our application and interview process. To request an accommodation due to a disability, please inform your recruiter. And if you’re just starting your career, Exponent’s system design interview course provides the jump start you need to succeed. Employers use levels because it helps them, but it also helps you as an employee.
The average software engineer in San Francisco earns about $115,000 per year. Software engineers at the top tech companies like Google can earn about $187,000 per year considering the total compensation package. With that in mind, it’s a good time to mention that Exponent’s Software Engineering Interview course provides the tools you need to succeed at interviews with those top tech companies. When submitting your application above, you are being given the opportunity to provide information about your race/ethnicity, gender, and veteran status.
Merchants that depend on Shopify for a highly scalable, performant, and reliable platform benefit directly from the work you do. You will maintain a high bar for quality and lead and mentor other engineers. And of course, you’ll be hands-on in the code and contribute technically. Here are just some of the stories from the teams who build and scale Shopify. Our Front End Engineers collaborate closely with software engineering teams, designers, product managers, and marketers to not only build incredible merchant-facing products and marketing campaigns, but also engineer-facing tools.
Their pay leans much more towards base salary than company stock, but the overall package is often higher than it is for similar years of experience with other companies. Although this article will focus on software engineering levels, the concept of a multi-tiered leveling system is not unique to software engineering positions. Lots of fields and companies use levels to add structure to their workforce. Fabien Catteau, @fcatteau (Compiègne, France) focused on knowledge management and transfer within the context of a broader technological vision, which complements the Product vision. Since GitLab is an enterprise-scale product, nobody can know everything – so Staff level engineers balance sharing what they know and being comfortable with asking for help. It’s important to understand what skills and knowledge are missing from a discussion, reaching out to who knows the missing piece, and bringing them into the conversation.
We believe that diverse teams perform better and that fostering an inclusive work environment is a key part of growing a successful team. We welcome people of diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. We are an equal opportunity employer, and we are committed to working with applicants requesting accommodation at any stage of the hiring process. This is part of the reason why it’s so important to understand software engineering levels for the company you’re at.
How much do Level 3 engineers make?
Frequently asked questions about an Engineer III salaries
The highest salary for an Engineer III in India is ₹22,59,218 per year. The lowest salary for an Engineer III in India is ₹7,02,625 per year.
At the Senior level, they are expected to address the most complex challenges within their team, as well as help their team members with technical blockers and process improvements. We believe that in order to build the best products, we need to build high impact teams. Our recruitment process centres around what we call the Life Story interview, a conversational-style interview where we get to learn more about you. We are a federal contractor or subcontractor required by law to provide equal employment opportunity to qualified people with disabilities.
The company knows that there’s going to be a learning process, and they know you’ll even mess up sometimes. They want someone who is a quick learner, a creative thinker, and can work well on a team. He emphasised kindness as one of the most important values, and at Staff level there is greater opportunity, and responsibility, to help others. Dylan Griffith, @DylanGriffith emphasized the role of reaching out beyond your team and collaborating with others across GitLab and in the wider community. By familiarising themselves, with the vision of the product itself as well as its business value, this allows Staff Engineers the ability to better identify cross-team issues that may have escaped notice.