Tara's Engineering Culture

Engineer Growth Framework

Title		Junior Software Engineer	Software Engineer	Senior Software Engineer	Staff Engineer	Principal Engineer
Overview		General knowledge required to be effective for day-to-day tasks	Can independently complete any task	Write thorough RFC designs and incorporate feedback	Leads design/implementation of complexity architectures while minimizing technical debt	Balances architectural systems, engineer capabilities business needs and budgets
Craft	Code	General proficiency of platform tools (FE: Typescript, React, Redux, CSS, Jest, Storybook, Github Actions) (BE: Clojure, Spec, Testing, REPL)	Deep-dives into API implementations (React, redux-firestore, Redux-toolkit, Clojure Spec, core.async, timbre/tufte)	Extends existing architectures, identifies conflated separations of concerns, deep knowledge of profiling (React Profiler usage, Chrome performance traces, GCP Dashboard creation)	Designs complex interconnected systems, leads development of new coding standards, extended computer science knowledge, language/platform deep-dives (GC, browser subsystems + rendering, Kubernetes/GCP container runtime)	Polyglot and/or academic, bringing industry-leading expertise in engineering and sets strategic direction aligning business needs with engineering
	Quality	Submits detailed PRs, addresses all acceptance criteria, follows coding standards	Updates coding standards, identifies missing acceptance criteria, proactively identifies performance and technical debt concerns	PR reviews ensure consistency, educates engineers and tracks/balances technical debt between Tara/Code	Champions system refinements and balances with feature development/user needs.	Builds strategic systems for stability/performance into engineering, owns e2e customer experience and business alignment with engineering
	Diversify	Goes beyond core competencies to further knowledge of proper API usage	Expands into CI, deployments and build systems (Github Actions, Cloud Build, custom linters, yarn, scripting)	Expands into run-time systems (Logging/Error Handling, Business KPI Reporting, GCP), owns outage reports	Aligns core business KPIs to engineering priorities, ensures long-term vision in quicken the pace of deploying features, stability and performance	Thought-leader publicly in improving the hiring pipeline, promotes internal progress and crafts community standards
Unity	Communication	Vocal when need clarification or deadline changes	Co-develops accurate sprint-level estimates and works with teammates for consistent, stable, performance code.	Provides accurate estimations through detailed implementation steps, reduces risk from unknowns implementations.	Leads RFC creation to implement multi-month initiatives and incorporates feedback. Refines processes to reduce unknowns.	Excellent technical documentation and explains complex topics to all engineering levels
	Partnership	Pairs with team for planning and scoping out tasks	Pairs with team members on implementation of code. Supports designs conversations.	Provides insight, count-points and detailed feedback on RFCs.	Leads RFC discussions, offers counterpoints, exposing implementation challenges and refines RFC to an implementation plan.	Creates standards to ensure consistent, world-class output of code
	Fun	No Zealot rule. Brings whole self to work. Identifies and creates ways to have more fun. Cares about teammates. Makes a mark on the engineering culture.
Learning	Empathy	Listen and asks questions about building world-class user experiences.	Collaborates on flexing scope (don't push back) to fit deadlines and ROI. Align on time & risk costs to achieve a customer benefit (aka Engineering ROI).	Improve teammates knowledge of core systems and depth, listen to other how engineering can be of service others.	Educates themself on product, growth, business roles and user needs and jobs to be done. Be determined without being dogmatic/zealot.	Understands leadership's needs and proactively brings in others to address the most pressing problems
	Passion	Works with manager to improve technical proficiency. Builds a habit of documenting aggrements and details to improve alignment.	Identifies and rasies future concerns that might impact users in the future.	Identifies user-facing UX, stability & performance issues and gaps in engineering knowledge sharing.	Identifies system limitations, maximum output and options/timelines to address.	Long-term roadmap defects that will start causing issues, alerts and builds momentum in engineering and leadership to address.
	Breadth	Reviews RFCs and coding standards.	Furthers understanding of business KPIs and expands coding standards	Writes detailed new coding standards and RFCs	Connects business KPIs to engineering priorities	Ensures leadership goals are aligned with engineering roadmap