A Career Path is supposed to answer the following questions:
| Levels | Individual Contribution Track | Management Track |
|---|---|---|
| E6 | VP of Engineering | VP of Engineering |
| E5 | Principal Engineer | Director of Engineering |
| E4 | Senior Staff Engineer | Senior Engineering Manager |
| E3 | Staff Engineer | Engineering Manager |
| E2 | Senior Engineer S2 | - |
| E2 | Senior Engineer S1 | - |
| E1 | Engineer S3 | - |
| E1 | Engineer S2 | - |
| E1 | Engineer S1 | - |
The Engineering Competency Matrix is meant for measuring and understanding the competencies, the focus, and the scope expected for each role.
Competencies are structured in 4 areas: Technical Excellence, Influence, Delivery, and Communication & Collaboration.
The competency matrix follows a simplified semantic versioning standard that uses only the major and the minor versions (e.g. 2.7).
The major version should get bumped when we apply changes that impact the expectations for one or more roles.
The minor version should get bumped when we apply changes that do not impact the expectations for any role.
On top of the responsibilities related to their role, engineers can have the following duties:
Duties are not related to one particular role. People can indeed be assigned to one or more of those duties according to their career path and business needs.
In Homerun Technologies, promotions are descriptive, not prescriptive: we promote Engineers when they fully demonstrate that they are performing at the next level. Promotions do not unlock new responsibilities; the new responsibilities and increased scope come first, and then we recognize it with a promotion.
In particular, to be eligible for a promotion to a new career level, an Engineer should demonstrate a conscious, comfortable, continuous, consistent competency in the next career level, defined as follows:
Conscious: Having devoted intentional effort to the endeavor,
Comfortable: without being overly stretched,
Continuous: for a reasonable period,
Consistent: reliably and evenly,
Competencies: meeting the next level criteria.
The examples listed in the matrix for every competency and role are meant to give a sense of what type of behaviors we would expect from someone at a given level. Those examples are not specific criteria that must be met; instead, they help paint a picture of what type of things someone might do when they have achieved that level. You can exhibit different behaviors and reach different goals of similar complexity, scale, or impact, and thus still achieve that level; that allows us to foster diversity and give value to everyone’s characteristics.