Career levels: L1 to L7 2024-07-06

Many organisations categorise job roles by levels, starting from level 1 (L1) for junior positions and progressing up to level 7 (L7) or higher for senior positions.

This post serves as a subjective guideline for interpreting how these levels apply.

• L1: Entry-level.

  Require supervision to deliver work.

  Example: A back-end engineer working on a user microservice, receiving guidance from other team members.

• L2: Junior.

  Deliver work independently without supervision.

  Example: A back-end engineer autonomously building features and resolving issues on the user microservice.

• L3: Senior.

  Recognise and comprehend the interconnections between their work and other closely related components.

  Example: A back-end engineer working on the user microservice, understanding its relationship with the purchase and product microservices.

• L4: Lead.

  Have an understanding that extends horizontally across other interrelated teams in the company.

  Example: A back-end engineer who understands how the user, purchase, and product microservices interweave with product onboarding and user journey tracking.

• L5: Staff, or L5M: Director.

  Able to interconnect the relationships between multiple departments within an organisation.

  Example: Storing user personally identifiable information (PII) may require user consent and internal legal reviews. Additionally, they understand how user journey performance translates to accounting figures.

• L6: Senior Staff, or L6M: Head or Vice President.

  Transform strategic vision into departmental plans.

• L7: Principal, or L7M: Executive.

  Possess the strategic vision to bring products and services to market for business profitability.

As the job level increases, the role becomes more multifaceted and involves a greater variety of tasks, in contrast to entry-level positions that are more task-specific.