When I joined Credit Karma, we were a little under 100 engineers and had 5 or so people titled Staff Software Engineer or Architect. Largely they were folks who had shown they were the best senior engineers in the company and were recognized for it. But they weren't being asked to do more than a senior engineer, there weren't expectations for them to base off of. At the time, I felt like we needed a virtuous cycle going with some people setting the standard that everyone else should be meeting. So I wrote the first edition of a career framework for SWEs but it was specifically done with the intent to define the Staff SWE level as differentiated. I defined some competencies, created examples for different levels, and really tried to set the stage for people's impact being large with expectations for both how (competencies) and what (outcomes).

This document is the second evolution of that framework. In this second evolution, the company had wanted a similar framework for everyone in the company. I worked with a subgroup of both EPD and the rest of the company / HR to define competencies that would be valid across function and some shared understanding of levels that were similar (like Senior was largely scoped for the same impact in different functions). We also got some support from our marketing design team to make it look good. When this document was published, we were over 750 engineers and 1500 people in the company.

Most people go wrong by misunderstanding two things:

1. That levels are comprised of both how you do things and what you accomplish.
2. While it creates some directional clarity, it isn't supposed to be rigid.

A person can drag a project over the finish line with bad behaviors and have the project create a good outcome and they still need to grow to get promoted. A person can also have a ton of great behaviors and not be able to coalesce them into the right outputs and they still need to grow too to get promoted. It's about people figuring out how to combine inputs together in order to create great outputs consistently.


These things aren't about checking the boxes. They're about giving some guidance about where the lines may or may not be. The more senior you get, the less likely you meet every aspect of the bar for a level evenly. There are some things you are weak on and other things that you exceed the bar at. Also, everyone becomes different, you might have introverts and extroverts approach things with a slightly different method but create the same outcome. When anyone let's it be a box checking exercise you start getting incentive misalignment and same-ism.

Matt Greenberg

I created these career ladders at Credit Karma to clarify expectations for senior engineers. I wanted to set a standard for Staff SWEs by defining the impact they should be having on the org.

Think of it as a guide for how to be successful at a given level and how to develop into the next level. This document is specifically for software engineers and describes the impact, scope and responsibilities at each level from Software Engineer I up to Principal Engineer.

Fundamentally, it provides an objective framework to assess success in each role. We talk a lot about growth at Credit Karma, and when companies scale, it’s important to have effective ways to clearly define role expectations and career growth opportunities.

● Approach this as a guide that provides clarity on current-level expectations and on how to grow into the next level.

● Don’t view it as a checklist! Instead, anchor to the scope and impact of a level, and then use the competencies as strong guidance for how to effectively achieve them.

● Work closely with your manager to identify both areas of strength and growth opportunity, so that you can develop actionable and specific next steps toward your career goals.

● Set clear expectations for your team throughout the year.

● Explicitly frame feedback in the context of career growth, both for areas of strength and growth.

● Evaluate interview candidates using the career framework to make well-informed decisions and determine appropriate leveling.

A Software Engineer I is an apprentice with little professional experience in software engineering. While they can code and solve problems, they are not expected to have knowledge of other aspects involved in practically building production systems. They replace this practical experience with clear signs of an aptitude to become senior engineers and show immense potential with our values and their soft skills. This level is about gaining core competencies and skills. Mentorship and exposure will be keys for success at this level.

A Software Engineer II is an entry level engineer with more comfort in a professional environment. They have solid analytical, programming and design skills. They have foundational skills down, whether from education or experience, and can accomplish most tasks with some direction within their team. At this level, an engineer may have limited exposure to appropriate or specific technologies while still demonstrating their foundational skills. Like a Software Engineer I, they show clear signs of becoming more senior engineers and show immense potential with our values and their soft skills. This level is about gaining more core competencies and skills. Mentorship and exposure will be keys for success at this level.

A Software Engineer III is expected to be independent and self-directed. They are able to independently own and deliver features of moderate complexity and vagueness, communicate in an effective manner, write well-structured high-quality code with minimal guidance, and consistently follow best practices.

A Software Engineer IV has strong technical expertise that is noted by their peers as well as technical leaders within their team. Not only are they able to take full responsibility for delivering complex features, they are able to articulate and defend their technical decisions and thought processes in a highly consumable fashion. A Software Engineer IV proactively recognizes technical hurdles and mitigates them with pragmatic solutions. In addition, software engineers at this level have started to build their leadership skills, helping to mentor and provide high-value recommendations and direction to other engineers on their team.

A Senior Software Engineer demonstrates leadership in addition to technical contribution. They act as a team facilitator with excellent communication skills, and they enthusiastically seek out particularly ambiguous and complex aspects of projects on their team. They have a significant understanding of software as a practice, matched by leadership that drives their team to high levels of success. This level is the fully qualified journeyman position in which many engineers will spend their career, constantly honing their craft without lack of room for growth.

A Senior Software Engineer II is an experienced leader within their own team and org. They deliver on their own projects and increase the capacity of their team to win more. They start to engage in larger-scale initiatives that are cross-functional as a leader. They have the technical capacity to think through problems beyond their own team, as well as, problems that move the business, and have the ability to deliver company impacting projects as a lead with strong mentorship and coaching from more senior staff.

A Staff Software Engineer provides an expert level of technical leadership. They enhance the effectiveness of others (“force multiplier”) by providing mentorship, coaching and technical leadership at the program level. Staff Software Engineers provide exceptional consistency and impact across multiple teams, high-velocity quality output, and solutions for program-level technical complexity and scope within projects. The competencies and expectations of Staff Software Engineers are an exponential step above Senior Engineers and it is not expected that all engineers will reach this level.

A Staff Software Engineer II provides expert-level technical leadership on our most critical projects and programs. They’re able to bring new technologies and techniques to our most important problems in ways that work within our security, platform and product needs. Staff Engineers are known for making their teams better and being sought-after mentors across all of engineering.

A Senior Staff Software Engineer delivers exceptional technical leadership across a core engineering function, such as Product, Platform, Data or Client Engineering. They possess a finely honed ability to influence, align and guide all teams within their function around strategic objectives. Senior Staff Software Engineers partner with domain and technology owners to achieve goals by understanding requirements and providing solutions.

A Principal Engineer is recognized for technical accomplishment that is fundamental to Credit Karma’s business. Principal Engineers are responsible for growing leaders and producing content and code that exemplifies Credit Karma. They solve novel problems within Credit Karma and use their learnings to drive the advancement of industry domains and external communities in meaningful ways.

A long-lived initiative that is created to obtain broad organizational or technical objectives. It will consist of multiple projects and ongoing efforts over time.

: Product verticals like mortgage, auto, personal loans, CCs, Tax and Canada.

: Large ecosystems like Notifications, Native apps, Vault Security, RecSys, Credit Ecosystem, Developer Efficiency and Front-end.

A core area or activity that an organization must engage in to accomplish its strategy. Credit Karma’s Software Engineering Organization’s core functions include Product, Platform, Data and Client.

Engineering Career Ladders at Credit Karma

Introduction to Career Frameworks

What is a career framework?

What is its purpose?

How should I use this document?

Sign up to see more