"Senior Engineer" titles have a very specific and useful role in my experience - you can avoid the Peter Principle if people are rewarded for a job well done no

"Senior Engineer" titles have a very specific and useful role in my experience - you can avoid the Peter Principle if people are rewarded for a job well done not with a change of role, but with recognition/prestige and a pay raise. This also serves as a useful tool for managers who want to make sure every team has a certain proportion of "seasoned coders". Companies that don't have a Senior Engineer title tend to promote good engineers into management roles where they are often quite mediocre.