Foundations
By Medium
Level 1
Works effectively within established structures, following current best practices
E.g. Resolved out of disk errors independently
E.g. Implemented new ETL pipelines based on existing ones
E.g. Made safe and effective Ansible changes
Performs backfills safely and effectively, without causing pages
Makes simple configuration changes to services
Writes thorough postmortems for service outages
Level 2
Develops new instances of existing architecture, or minor improvements to existing architecture
E.g. Improved ETL efficiency by improving Dynamo to S3 loading
E.g. Built custom packages for RPMs
E.g. Upgraded NodeJS from 8.0 to 8.1.1
Triages service issues correctly and independently
Builds machine learning jobs within the ML framework
Made minor version upgrades to technologies
Level 3
Designs standalone systems of moderate complexity, or major new features in existing systems
E.g. Designed flexible framework for writing machine learning jobs
E.g. Built Medium's realtime stats pipeline
E.g. Designed Ansible configuration management
Makes major version upgrades to libraries
Designs moderately complex systems
Acts as primary maintainer for existing critical systems
Level 4
Builds complex, reusable architectures that pioneer best practices for other engineers, or multi-system services
E.g. Introduced Kinesis and pioneered streaming events pipeline
E.g. Designed AWS configuration management
E.g. Designed and built BBFD
Introduces new databases and technologies to meet underserved needs
Demonstrates deep knowledge of foundational systems
Designs complex projects that encompass multiple systems and technologies
Level 5
Is an industry-leading expert in foundational engineering or sets strategic foundational direction for an eng team
E.g. Developed and implemented HA strategy
E.g. Defined and developed Medium's continuous delivery strategy
E.g. Invented a novel ML technique that advanced the state of the art
Invents industry-leading techniques to solve complex problems
Defines the strategic vision for foundational work and supporting technologies
Designs transformational projects in service of long-term goals