Mind you, though, Netflix's pay and scope are competitive for up to entry-level staff engineer with very few exceptions (Brendan Gregg is one such exception). T

Mind you, though, Netflix's pay and scope are competitive for up to entry-level staff engineer with very few exceptions (Brendan Gregg is one such exception). That means every engineer writes code, is responsible for one or more services, and uses their services to assert their influence. Very few engineers get more than $800K or whatever comparable packages offered to Sr Staff/Principal engineers in other companies. I personally view this as a strength of Netflix. They have such a wonderful culture that empowers its engineers to focus on building and being autonomous. They don't need people to drive company wide initiatives most of the time.