This repo contains a list of Socialbakers Engineering titles, roles, and associated responsibilities, also known as The Ladder.
The Ladder was invented to make career progression at Socialbakers' engineering department more transparent and easier to understand, rewarding technical excellence alongside effective behaviors and communication skills.
It's imperative to acknowledge that the ladder does not introduce a hierarchy. Responsibility for delivering a value is on the whole team - the goal of the ladder is to set up a path for career development, to set expectations and introduce topics to disuss in regular 1-1 meetings.
Core of the ladder is a system of levels for developers. At the moment, top level is level 4, which applies to the roles of an Engineering Manager and both Architect roles (these are different roles, not levels).
| scope/level | Level 0 | Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 | Level 4 | Skills |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| delivery | ☆☆☆☆ | ★☆☆☆ | ★★☆☆ | ★★★☆ | ★★★★ | Scoping and prioritization, Testing and monitoring, Shipping to production, Initiative |
| domain expertise | ★☆☆☆ | ★★☆☆ | ★★☆☆ | ★★★☆ | ★★★★ | Knowledge of your discipline (e.g. web development, microservices, databases), Language, Tools, Business and product sense |
| problem solving | ★☆☆☆ | ★☆☆☆ | ★★☆☆ | ★★★☆ | ★★★☆ | Architecture & design patterns, Breaking down large problems, Critical thinking, Analytical skills, Creativity, Decision making |
| communication | ★☆☆☆ | ★☆☆☆ | ★☆☆☆ | ★★★☆ | ★★★★ | Documentation, Collaboration, Relationship-building, Interviewing, Listening, Empathy |
| leadership | ★☆☆☆ | ★☆☆☆ | ★☆☆☆ | ★★☆☆ | ★★★★ | Accountability, Responsibility, Mentorship, Leading by example |
| min stars | 2 | 5 | 8 | 12 | 16 |
The boundary of the ladder is the team. Since there are many differences in regard to how each team works and operates, needless to mention the level of knowledge, it would be difficult to make the levels unified across the company.
Therefore, we lay down the levels in a form of a team assessment. Team members make a peer assessment based on scopes decribed in the table above. Some higher levels are assessed by members of wider teams, including product owners and Architects.
As an additional metric to the Ladder, we have a system of Badges. Badges will mark exceptional qualities not described in the Ladder, usually technical abilities such as deep knowledge of ElasticSearch, being an ambassador of BDD aproach etc.
The system is created as exception based, meaning that we don't assume that we have all-fitting people. Therefore, discussion about level is goal-based, not proof-based. For instance, we can say "We see you nearly at Level 3, to get there, however, we need you to be more proactive in feature refinement meetings". We can also mark some traits as exceptional in specific cases, such as "You are a great solution architect and we don't expect that you will speak in public, despite it's described as a requirement at your level".
It's important to acknowledge that we don't push employees into management roles just in order to get upward in responsibility or compensation, irrespecitvely of their skillset or strengths. We want to go for an ideal use of each talent and set up a viable career path so that everyone may become an excellent contributor for the company in general. The responsibility of each manager is to find the best way to put each individual on a path that could maximize the user of their talent.