Career Ladder Inspiration · Engineering
Generic's engineering career framework
Generic engineering manager career ladder covering 6 competency areas across 4 management levels from EM to VP Engineering. Covers people leadership, delivery, technical leadership, strategy, communication, and org development.
Company Generic|Year 2026|Discipline Engineering|Tracks TBD|License
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Clone this templateEngineering Manager | Senior Engineering Manager | Director of Engineering | VP of Engineering | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Skills People Leadership | Manages a team of 4-8 engineers. Conducts effective 1:1s and performance reviews. Coaches engineers on career growth. Addresses performance issues with support from their manager. | Manages multiple teams or a larger team. Coaches senior engineers and may manage other EMs. Grows Tech Leads. Drives performance culture. | Manages Engineering Managers. Develops and coaches EMs effectively. Ensures managers and leads are mentoring and developing their teams. Drives hiring strategy. | Leads the entire engineering organization. Develops engineering leaders at all levels. Shapes the engineering brand. Attracts and retains top talent at scale. |
Skills Delivery & Execution | Ensures team consistently delivers high quality work. Tracks team efficiency and adjusts processes. Partners with PM to manage scope and ensure deliverables are met. | Significantly accelerates delivery and increases impact of multiple teams. Guides teams to provide maximum user-focused impact. Experiments with ways to become more efficient. | Drives execution of large and complex initiatives. Accountable for long-term technical roadmap. Balances immediate and long-term work with technical debt. | Drives execution of company-wide initiatives. Establishes delivery practices at organizational scale. Accountable for engineering output and quality. |
Skills Technical Leadership | Strong technical background. Spends some time staying current with technology trends. Can debug and triage critical systems. Performs code reviews as needed. | Possesses deep technical understanding of team systems and high-level understanding of broader technical systems. Ensures work is done to high technical standards. | Deep understanding of systems across multiple teams. Identifies bottlenecks and architectural issues. Guides long-term technical strategy. | Sets the overall technical vision and strategy. Makes the highest-level technical decisions. Ensures technical excellence at organizational scale. |
Skills Strategy & Planning | Identifies the most high-value projects and keeps team focused. Plans and recruits to fill headcount needs. Identifies areas of technical debt and communicates priorities. | Defines team goals and strategies that align with organizational goals. Translates goals into effective roadmaps. Identifies focus areas for the technology team. | Creates high performance organizations. Responsible for strategic balance between business-focused work and technical development. Drives organizational planning. | Responsible for company-wide engineering strategy. Aligns engineering investment with business direction. Drives organizational design and scaling plans. |
Skills Communication & Influence | Communicates expectations clearly to team members. Solicits and delivers individual feedback frequently. Builds relationships with product and business partners. | Develops strong collaboration with cross-functional leadership. Facilitates cross-team communication. Knows how to leverage technical guidance and coaching to increase impact. | Strong communicator who can simplify technical concepts for non-technical partners. Creates positive public presence for engineering. Capable of selling the company to candidates. | Communicates engineering perspective at the executive level. Represents engineering in company-wide strategic decisions. Shapes external perception of the engineering organization. |
Skills Organizational Development | Identifies headcount needs. Helps with recruiting and hiring. Supports team members' career growth with coaching and feedback. | Optimizes hiring at scale. Grows Tech Leads to have multiplier effect on teams. Identifies team staffing needs aligned with business goals. | Creates and grows next generation of leadership and management talent. Obsessed with creating high-functioning, engaged organizations. Owns retention goals. | Shapes organizational culture and values. Builds the engineering leadership pipeline. Drives diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives at scale. |
Framework by Generic · Licensed
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