How many levels do software engineering ladders have?

Key findings

• Ladders run from 3 to 9 levels. The median is 6, and 11 of the 35 ladders use exactly 6.
• 23 of the 29 ladders that use job titles have a Senior level. Its median position is step 3 from the bottom.
• 18 ladders publish a separate track for managers. The 16 that say where it starts put it between step 3 and step 7, and the median is step 4.
• In 12 of 13 ladders that have both a Senior level and a placed manager track, management starts at the Senior level or later.

How many levels software engineering ladders have

Each bar is the number of ladders with that many levels for software engineers who do not manage people.

• 3 levels2 ladders
• 4 levels3 ladders
• 5 levels7 ladders
• 6 levels11 ladders
• 7 levels4 ladders
• 8 levels6 ladders
• 9 levels2 ladders

Which titles the ladders use

The bars cover the 29 ladders whose levels are job titles. The other 6 use grades or scope names instead of job titles, such as “Level 2” or “Squad/Chapter Step”. One ladder can use several of these words.

• Senior23 of 29
• Staff17 of 29
• Principal20 of 29
• Distinguished or Fellow5 of 29

Senior counts a level titled Senior or Sr., not Senior Staff or Senior Principal. Distinguished or Fellow also counts “Engineer of Distinction”.

Where the manager track starts

This chart shows the step, counted from the bottom of each ladder, where the first people-manager role sits. It covers the 16 ladders that say where it starts. Of the rest, 2 have a manager track but do not say where it starts, 2 say they have none (or not yet), and 15 do not say whether they have one.

• Step 35 ladders
• Step 47 ladders
• Step 52 ladders
• Step 61 ladder
• Step 71 ladder

Download the data

One row per ladder: its name, who publishes it, the source link, the number of levels, the level names, the manager track and the step it starts at.

All 35 ladders

How we did it

We read 35 software engineering ladders that companies publish themselves, on their own sites, GitHub or shared documents, and kept only those whose levels we could read as text. We left out templates written by individuals and ladders only for design, product or data teams.

Levels are the steps a software engineer can climb without managing people, lowest first. Interns and trainees are left out. When a ladder splits one title into numbered steps, each with its own expectations (like “Senior Engineer I” and “II”), each step counts. Pay bands inside one level do not. A level above both tracks that the ladder does not open to individual contributors is not counted.

The manager track starts where the ladder puts its first people-manager role: the same band or level number, the same row of its table, or the step where it says the tracks split. When that role sits above the top level, it counts as the next step up. When a ladder has a manager track but does not place it, we do not guess.

Title shares only count ladders whose levels are job titles. A level counts as Senior when its title says Senior or Sr., but not Senior Staff or Senior Principal.

This is a sample of the ladders people chose to publish, mostly from tech companies, and some are several years old. It shows what public ladders look like, not what every company does. Where a live page was gone or blocked automated reading, we read the Internet Archive copy, and the table says so.

We store only public facts: how many levels a ladder has, what the levels are called and where the manager track starts. Each ladder belongs to its publisher, so follow the links for the full text. None of them has reviewed or endorsed this study, and Competrace is not affiliated with them.

Spotted a mistake, or a public ladder we missed? Email support@competrace.com with the link, and we will update the data.

See levels with their skills

The study counts levels. To see what each level needs, browse our software engineering career path with the skills each level expects, or read what a career ladder is.

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