“We expect each person promoted to Senior SWE to have largely demonstrated competence in all areas (in our case, Technical Skills, Leadership, and Culture and V

“We expect each person promoted to Senior SWE to have largely demonstrated competence in all areas (in our case, Technical Skills, Leadership, and Culture and Values) and to have met the bar in all areas, making the required skill set of all Senior SWEs fairly similar.” The leadership and culture markers are _wildly_ subjective. I’m willing to bet managers are still paid more and still carry more favoritism and power and climbing the tech track ranks is very difficult.