Engineering Levels
Four levels: intern, junior, mid, and senior. Each is defined by what you can handle independently — not by years of experience or the tools you know.
The progression is about one thing: how much raw material you can work with before you need structure or direction. The type of work does not change across levels. What changes is how much clarity you need coming in, and how much you produce going out.
At a Glance
| Stage | Intern | Junior | Mid | Senior |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Discover | Given a specific question. Reports findings, does not frame the problem. | Gathers data and surfaces patterns. Needs the problem framed for them. | Takes a symptom and produces a clear problem statement. | Takes vague direction and finds the right problem to solve. |
| Define | Participates and contributes. Follows the definition doc, does not write it. | Writes sections with review. Sees the solution when the problem is clear. | Owns the doc. Challenges the design and catches missed constraints. | Leads or co-leads the session. Shapes the solution from first principles. |
| Build | Works on tasks with explicit acceptance criteria. Asks when stuck. | Works independently on clearly scoped tasks. Escalates when scope shifts. | Works independently on complex, ambiguous tasks. Manages own scope. | Directs implementation. Reviews for correctness and maintainability. Unblocks others. |
| Launch | Executes assigned steps. Does not own the release. | Follows a release plan reliably. | Owns the release plan for a feature. Writes release notes. | Owns the release end to end. Anticipates risk before it surfaces. |
| Learn | Reflects on their own work. | Writes a retrospective for their own work. | Runs the retrospective. Surfaces patterns across the project. | Drives the retrospective. Connects findings to how the team works next. |
Intern
An intern is learning how the work happens. They operate inside well-defined scope and produce reliable output when the task is clear. The goal at this stage is not just to ship — it is to see the full shape of the work: how Discover connects to Define, how Define shapes Build, and how Learn feeds back into the next cycle.
Getting to Junior: The move is from executing tasks to owning them. You are ready when you can take a scoped problem and bring it to completion without being told each step — when you stop needing acceptance criteria spelled out and can derive it yourself from the definition doc.
Junior
A junior can own a task end to end. They work within a well-defined problem and produce consistent output. They ask good questions — not because they are lost, but because they are filling gaps before those gaps become blockers. The distance to mid is not skill. It is how much ambiguity they can absorb before needing the problem clarified.
Getting to Mid: The move is from working within a defined problem to defining the problem yourself. Practice by taking ownership of Discover on smaller problems before the Define session. You are ready when you can take a reported symptom and produce a clear problem statement without being handed one.
Mid
A mid-level engineer can take a problem from symptom to solution. They do not need the problem handed to them — they can frame it, own the definition, and produce a Build-ready doc. They are reliable without supervision and can unblock themselves and others.
Getting to Senior: The move is from framing clear problems to finding the right problems from vague direction. A senior does not wait to be given a problem. Push yourself earlier in Discover: before a problem is brought to you, find and frame it yourself. You are ready when you can receive an abstract direction and produce the problem worth solving.
Senior
A senior engineer operates from direction, not from defined problems. They receive an abstract goal and produce the clarity the rest of the team needs to move. They do not just execute the process — they shape it. They make the work easier for everyone around them.
Beyond Senior, the track shifts from individual execution to organizational influence: how you raise the ceiling for the whole team, not just your own output. That conversation happens with leadership.