What “Next Level” actually looks like
In one of my 1:1s, an engineer on my team asked, “I know we have the career ladder docs,” he said, “but what does it really take to get to the next level? What’s the actual difference?”
It’s a question I hear a lot, and I love it. It shows a desire to grow beyond just shipping tickets. The official documents are great for defining expectations, but they can feel like a checklist. The real journey isn’t about ticking boxes.
In the previous post, I shared about the real stages of experience in Software Engineering, so that you know what you should focus on to gain more experience. In this post, I will follow up on another aspect of what type of problem you should focus on to grow.
After years of building teams and mentoring engineers, I’ve found that the entire arc of a technical career can be distilled into a single idea:
Your growth is a journey from solving clearly defined problems, to navigating highly ambiguous problems, to finally identifying the right problems to solve for the business.
That’s it. That’s the game. You move from being given a map, to being given a compass and a destination, to being the one who decides which mountains are worth climbing in the first place.
While every company has its own matrix, here’s how I see that journey break down in practice.
Stage 1: Building the Foundation
This is where it all starts. Your title will be Software Engineer. The focus is on execution, reliability, and learning the craft. In this stage, I will split it into 2 phases.
Software Engineer (Phase 1): You deliver well-defined tasks on time and with high quality. You’re handed a clear spec, and you can be trusted to build it with minimal guidance. You’re honing your technical skills and proving your dependability.
Software Engineer (Phase 2): You don’t just take tasks, you clarify them. You spot the missing edge cases in a ticket before you start coding. You collaborate with your peers to complete assignments, asking the right questions to make the work better. You’re moving from a pure doer to a participant in the solution.
Stage 2: Expanding Your Scope
This is the most significant transition for many. Your title will be Senior Software Engineer. You begin to shift from owning tickets to owning outcomes. In this stage, I will also split it into 2 phases.
Senior Software Engineer (Phase 1): You own an entire project. Instead of a series of tasks, you’re given a goal, like “Improve the checkout flow”. You are responsible for clarifying the scope, breaking down the work, and collaborating across the team to deliver it. You’re now a leader of execution.
Senior Software Engineer (Phase 2): You’ve moved beyond project-level problems to team-level problems. You see the friction in the deployment process and propose a solution. You notice the team is struggling with a legacy component, and you create a plan to address it. You guide the team to a better way of working.
Stage 3: Scaling Your Impact
At this stage, your primary role is no longer only writing code, it’s creating leverage. You enable everyone around you to be more effective. Your title will be Staff Software Engineer, to Senior Staff Software Engineer, to Principal Software Engineer, to whatever your organization has.
Staff Software Engineer: You are the go-to expert in a specific domain. When a hard problem involving your specialty comes up, you’re the person everyone seeks out. You provide direction, mentor others, and multiply your impact by enabling the entire team to succeed within your specialty.
Senior Staff Software Engineer: You take on fuzzy, organization-level problems. The challenge might be “Our web performance is degrading” or “We need a unified design system”. You coordinate across multiple teams, create the plan, and ensure the entire org can deliver on a complex, high-impact outcome.
Principal Software Engineer: You operate at the highest level of technical strategy. You aren’t just solving problems; you are identifying the most important future challenges and opportunities for the entire engineering organization. You see what’s three years out, propose a clear vision, and lead efforts across the company to make it a reality.
Important Truths
First, each level builds directly on the skills of the one before it. You can’t be an effective Senior Software Engineer who owns projects if you haven’t first proven you can deliver tasks reliably. This growth has to be demonstrated consistently, not just on one showcase project. I also mentioned once in the post Mindset > Title, in order to move to the next level, it is not about changing the title. Promotions aren’t about potential alone. They’re about demonstrating the consistent behavior, attitude, and mindset aligned with the next role.
Second, you don’t have to keep climbing. In my experience, and as far as I know from different organizations, from Senior Software Engineer at stage 2 and above, it is considered a “career level”. This means if you are happy and effective in that role, you can remain there for the rest of your career. The pressure to advance is primarily on the earlier levels. Finding a position where you can deliver high value and feel fulfilled is a win, not a failure.
I hope this perspective helps clarify what real growth looks like. Now, the question is back to you.
Are you consistently meeting the expectations of your current level? And ready to start operating at the next one?