Title Dex
Technical Skill G(et)S(tuff)D(one)
Broad knowledge of core CS concepts.
Level 2 Software Engineer I Focus on growing as an engineer,
learning existing tools, resources and
processes
Writes correct and clean code with
guidance; consistently follows stated
Level 3 Software Engineer II best practices. Participates in technical
design of features with guidance
Understands and makes well-reasoned
design decisions and tradeoffs in their
area; able to work in other areas of the
Level 4 Sr Software Engineer codebase with guidance.
Can debug difficult problems e.g. ones
occurring at multiple levels in the stack
Go-to expert in one area of the
codebase; understands the broad
architecture of the entire system.
Staff Software
Level 5 Provides technical advice and weighs in
Engineer I on technical decisions that impact other
teams or the company at large.
Researches and proposes new
technologies.
Sought out for technical guidance;
Staff Software Anticipates technical issues at the
Level 6 product level and makes architectural
Engineer II
and design decisions to avoid them.
Owner of and expert on large sections of
Recognized as a prolific contributor.
our codebase.
Level 7 Sr Staff Engineer A record of creating sweeping
improvements in stability, performance,
and scalability across major company-
critical systems
Able to recognize and make trade-offs
with respect to the whole system.
Understands deeply the entire
Level 8 Principal Engineer architecture for a major part of our
business and is able to articulate clearly
the scaling and reliability limits of that
area
Credit to Rent the Runway, which created an excellent chart which this is based off of: http://dresscode.renttherunway.com/blog/ladder
Str
Impact
Develops their productivity skills by learning source
control, editors, the build system, and other tools as
well as testing best practices
Capable of taking well-defined sub-tasks and
completing these tasks
Makes steady progress on tasks; knows when to ask
for help in order to get themselves unblocked
Capable of prioritizing tasks; avoids getting caught up
in unimportant details and endless "bikeshedding"
Persistent in the face of roadblocks; dispatches them
efficiently, pulling in others as necessary. Requires
minimal direction/oversight
Scopes and stages work into well-defined milestones
to avoid a monolithic deliverable.
Seems to always be shipping.
Constantly shipping high value improvements to core
products.
Able to break down larger projects into smaller pieces
that can be shipped incrementally.
Known for drama-free launches.
Consistently able to reduce the complexity of projects, services, complex libraries or major pieces of
services, and processes in order to get more done with infrastructure. Has made an obvious positive impact
less work
Consistently delivers large systems involving one or
more teams' contribution on time at a high level of
quality
Quickly breaks down complex problems into potential
solutions, knowns, and unknowns, in order to get to
solid resolutions faster
Capable of debugging the hairiest problems that the
team encounters
Wis
Communication & Leadership
Developing knowledge of a single component of our
architecture
Self-sufficient in at least one large area of the
codebase with a high-level understanding of other
components.
Possesses empathy with the user of the software they
are producing and uses that empathy to guide
decision-making.
End-to-end responsibility on projects of increasing
complexity; contributes to common code. Partners with that take all of these needs into account
product and analytics and drive requirements that take
into account all parties’ needs.
Identifies problems/risks of own work and others.
Takes initiative to identify and solve important
problems, coordinating with others on cross-cutting
technical issues
Idenitifies and proactively tackles technical debt before When necessary, works cross-functionally with
it grows into debt that requires significant up-front work marketing, sales, customer success, and support,
to resolve
Valued participant in high-level, broad architectural
conversations
Leading high-level, broad architectural conversations;
leads technical initiatives that cut across teams
Shapes broad architecture; ships multiple large
on the entire company's technical trajectory
Plays a key role in developing multi-year technology
strategy for complete and critical areas of the business
that encompass multiple systems and teams.
Decisions have a direct impact on the long-term
success or failure of Gatsby.
Creates architecture that enables many potential
futures without knowing exactly what the future is
Cha [team-specific] Comm
DevRel / Learning / Community traits
Effective in communicating status to the team
Exhibits Gatsby's core values, focuses on
understanding and living these values
Accepts feedback graciously and learns from
everything they do
Communicates assumptions and gets clarification on
tasks up front to minimize the need for rework
Solicits feedback from others and is eager to find
ways to improve
Understands how their work fits in to the larger project
and identifies problems with requirements.
Communicates effectively cross functions; is able to
work well with Product, Design, Analytics, etc, as
necessary.
Understands the tradeoffs between technical,
analytical and product needs and leads to solutions
Proactively identifies problems with requirements
(lack of clarity, inconsistencies, technical limitations)
for their own work and adjacent work, and
communicates these issues early to help course-
correct
Listens and guides debates to help reach a
consensus; once a decision is made, clearly
communicates and backs that decision.
leading initiatives to help them achieve their goals
Values listening; open to feedback; humble and
empathetic
Sets short to medium-term strategic technical
direction, able to look ahead 6-12 months and identify
the areas of greatest need and create plans to
improve them
Well-respected across product/eng; gives feedback
respectfully and constructively
Acts as a multiplier by building systems, authoring
tools, or introducing policies or patterns that raise the
level of productivity of the entire org.
Seen as a role model and mentor to every technical
member of the team
[team-specific] Core
Core traits
N/A
Has written a few blog posts and
pieces of documentation -- largely,
straightforward explanations such as
reference documentation, overviews,
and tutorial-style walkthroughs
Significant documentation contributions
of greater complexity, such as writing a
blog post announcing an API, which
requires technical skill and style. Even
better, writing demonstrates the ability Able to fully own the First Touch
to educate, such as writing a blog post Responder responsibility.
explaining why we built an API.
Speaks at conferences or on podcasts. Contributes to ongoing processes
Work is responsive to the community
and focuses on addressing common
and newly emerging questions.
Interest and understanding in how
people learn, and a willingness to go
outside your own preferred style of
teach, pet analogies, etc. to meet
people where they're at.
Works closely with marketing and
product to deliver strategic messages.
Demonstrates capability to empathize
with people's problems, and to educate
them from a solutions-based
perspective. (rather than "here's our
features".)
Demonstrates understanding of the
difference between talking about the
product and shilling for the product.
Strong resilience. Work is not personal, on pull requests of large
and if someone snipes at your
company or product, you don't get
upset. It doesn't hurt your feelings. You
respond when the complaint was made
in good faith, and don't engage if it
wasn't.
Shapes tenor and strategy of
community interactions. Deep
connection to community, with an
intrinsic passion for inclusion (of
everyone), fostering positivity, wanting
to see others succeed and surpass
you.
Recognized broadly as a key “voice” of
Gatsby. Builds relationship with key
partners, including agencies and
vendors, and translates them into
business value.
[team-specific] Cloud
Cloud Traits
Demonstrated eagerness to learn. Able to own a
technical task from beginning to end with some
oversight. Communicates well, asks for feedback,
owns their own development journey
Responsive to the community.
Chimes in on Github issues,
Discord, and Twitter to answer
questions and resolve Able to jump in and debug production issues with
misconceptions. Able to handle our chosen toolset. Can contribute to technical
many or most of First Responder design discussions.
responsibilities. Reviews and
merges small or low-complexity
pull requests.
Reviews and merges pull
requests of medium complexity. Mastery over debugging production issues with
our chosen toolset. Can lead technical design
and systems to increase team discussions. Can effectively mentor lower level
velocity. Understands how their engineers.
actions affect the rate of
community contributions & acts
accordingly.
When necessary, able to work
Team multiplier. Can effectively handle technical
with upstreams to push fixes and
leadership responsibilities, such as breaking down
encourage development.
a product requirement into actionable tasks and
Understanding of how "deep"
garnering alignment among immediate team
Gatsby internals (eg internal-
plugins) work and able to make
members. Able to design and implement high-
quality, large-scale distributed systems.
small changes when necessary.
Demonstrated ability to think about problems from
Reviews, and works with authors
a product perspective (rather than an engineering
perspective) when helpful
complexity.
Able to make substantial Team multiplier. Mastery over technical
improvements to "deep" Gatsby leadership responsibilities, such as breaking down
core modules in order to add core a product requirement into actionable tasks and
functionality. Recognized by garnering alignment among immediate team
community members as someone members. Mastery over the design and
who helps them make difficult implementation of high quality large scale
changes and build substantial distributed systems. Able to help guide product
work. strategy discussions.
Company multiplier. Ability to effectively mentor
Builds key cross-cutting features
staff engineers in both soft and technical skills.
that fundamentally alter the
Gatsby value proposition, such as
Able to coordinate and drive alignment between
multiple product engineering teams to deliver
incremental builds.
large scale technical impact
Able to nail the hairiest of technical problems by
Able to fundamentally re-architect marshalling multiple product engineering teams
and re-write Gatsby, on the level both inside and outside of Cloud. Ridiculous soft
of adding the GraphQL layer or skills. Turns the most opaque issues into crystal
the plugin system. clear deliverables. Seen as "next level" by senior
peers