Growth at Every Level: Understanding the IC Engineering Career Path at Metropolis
At Metropolis, we believe in fostering a culture of continuous growth and development. We know that top talent wants to understand their career trajectory, and that's why we've developed a clear, rigorous career leveling system for all our engineering roles. Our system is designed to provide a transparent framework for what's expected at each level and to guide meaningful conversations about career progression with your manager.
This isn't a restrictive checklist, but rather a tool to help you understand the core responsibilities and expectations at each stage of your engineering journey.
L4: Engineer I (The Foundational Engineer)
An engineer at this level is a proactive problem-solver who can independently complete tasks without constant guidance. You're expected to be proactive about getting clarity on goals and priorities to keep work moving forward. At L4, you'll work with your lead or manager to hone your time estimation skills and simplify your work through clear documentation and good meeting habits. You understand and follow standard engineering processes for designing, developing, and releasing deliverables. The work you produce is maintainable by others and demonstrates good craftsmanship. You are encouraged to take on more responsibility and seek out more work when you can handle it.
L5: Engineer II (The Independent Contributor)
At L5, you become a highly self-driven and independent contributor. You are capable of independently completing medium to large features or projects, each containing many tasks. You'll require minimal guidance on engineering craft, and your output will be well-organized and improve the engineering assets you work on. You are expected to have a strong grasp of your assigned projects and systems and to identify and drive necessary changes. Collaboration is key at this level, as you'll work effectively with cross-functional roles like Product Managers and designers. You also proactively seek feedback to improve and work with your manager on your development.
L6: Senior Engineer (The Team Influencer)
As an L6 engineer, you've established yourself as a steward of the systems and features you're responsible for. You have a consistently high level of productivity across multiple projects and have a track record of successfully completing large-scope projects. You are an influencer who can proactively identify problems and drive solutions, often without guidance. You help make your teammates more efficient by identifying issues and driving changes to address them. You are also able to lead a small team of 1-3 people toward a shared goal and drive tasks across other engineering teams. You're a self-improver who invests in your own skills and can provide detailed feedback to your manager about the performance of other team members. At this level, you also begin helping the broader organization through activities like recruiting, mentoring, or team management.
L7: Staff Engineer
The Staff Engineer is a technical leader who can solve problems that few others can. You are sought out for your technical expertise and serve as a strong mentor to other engineers. You lead major initiatives involving multiple teams and often implement the most challenging parts of a system or feature. At this level, you play a crucial role in setting the direction and goals for teams, both in project impact and engineering craft. You possess strong communication skills, allowing you to clearly explain technical problems to both technical and non-technical audiences using data and analysis. You also influence the engineering culture within your organization, advocating for higher product quality and efficiency.
L8: Senior Staff Engineer
As a Senior Staff Engineer, you have a detailed understanding of the organization's goals and can influence its strategy. You are able to drive the organization's technical direction and identify opportunities for increased efficiency. You understand company and industry trends, which helps you identify new opportunities and avoid low-quality technologies or business decisions. You are an exceptional mentor who can provide guidance, manage conflict, and communicate effectively not only within your team but also across the engineering organization. You are a close partner to managers, helping them improve their team's performance. You also contribute to leadership recruiting efforts for senior engineers and managers.
L9: Principal Engineer
A Principal Engineer at Metropolis has an impact that can extend beyond the company and into the industry itself. You are an expert in one or more domains, with industry-leading experience. You have a unique ability to see technical and business problems and opportunities that others miss. The projects you choose have a goal of making things "extraordinarily better," creating a "step function change for the overall business". You are an expert at debugging extremely difficult technical problems and mentor others in designing the most challenging system components. At this level, you drive technical, process, and cultural changes to help the company grow and thrive.
Metropolis offers dual-track career paths to support the growth of all its engineers. You can grow as an individual contributor (IC) all the way to L9, which represents the most senior technical contributors in the company. We also provide a parallel managerial career path, which starts at L6 (Manager) and continues to L7 (Senior Manager), L8 (Director), and L9 (Senior Director). This structure allows engineers to choose a development path—either IC or Manager—that aligns with their interests and strengths, without having to take on managerial responsibilities if that's not their desired career direction