As engineering organizations grow, a well-designed career framework is one of the most impactful tools for scaling culture and expectations. While many companies delay creating frameworks until they face pressing issues, proactively developing one can transform how your organization operates and grows.

At Safety, we’ve designed our framework to focus the company’s efforts on activities that help us succeed while providing employees with explicit feedback on how their work is valued. Here’s how we approached the process, the lessons we learned, and why a good career framework can be a powerful driver of success.

Why Career Frameworks Matter

A clear career framework serves multiple critical functions. First, it aligns your company's success with individual growth by explicitly defining valued behaviors and contributions. Second, it provides engineers with clear expectations at each level, eliminating ambiguity about progression. Most importantly, it shapes your engineering culture by codifying the behaviors and skills you value most.

The beauty of career frameworks lies not in their complexity, but in their clarity. They serve as powerful tools for:

• Helping current engineers understand their growth path
• Setting clear expectations for new hires
• Supporting managers in having meaningful career conversations
• Creating consistency in evaluation and promotion decisions
• Attracting talent by demonstrating a commitment to growth

Creating Your Framework: Start Simple, Think Long-term

The most common mistake organizations make is either copying another company's framework wholesale or trying to create an exhaustively detailed system from day one. Instead, focus on creating something that reflects your company's unique culture and values. 

Begin by defining your basic career levels—for instance, Software Engineer, Senior Engineer, and Staff Engineer. While this might seem overly simple, it provides a foundation you can build upon. The key is ensuring each level is distinctly defined with clear expectations.

When drafting level descriptions, consider:

• Technical skills and impact expected at each level
• Leadership and communication requirements
• Scope of responsibility
• Cultural behaviors you want to reinforce

Remember that your framework doesn't need to be perfect to be effective. What matters most is that it provides clear, actionable guidance that reflects the actual work your engineers do.

The categories we landed on for each level here at Safety are:

• Technical Excellence: Core skills and the ability to consistently deliver quality work.some text
  • Example for Senior Eng: Demonstrates strong technical judgment and system design capabilities
• Leadership & Communication: Collaborating effectively, mentoring others, and driving alignment across teams.some text
  • Example for Senior Eng: Actively mentors engineers and leads by example
• Ownership & Impact: Delivering meaningful results that align with business goals.some text
  • Example for Senior Eng: Owns medium-sized projects and their outcomes
• Innovation & Problem Solving: Tackling challenges with creativity and forward-thinking.some text
  • Example for Senior Eng: Designs innovative solutions to complex problems
• Product & Customer Focus: Building with the end user in mind.some text
  • Example for Senior Eng: Influences product decisions through technical insight

With these categories in place, we mapped expectations for each role level, ensuring clarity without over-complication.

Implementation, Buy-In and Feedback

The success of a career framework depends heavily on how it is implemented and improved over time. Start by gathering feedback from across your engineering organization. This isn't just about assessing the framework—it's about building buy-in and understanding.

At our first company retreat, we dedicated a full workshop session to the career framework. Rather than simply presenting the document, we created interactive exercises where engineers could apply the framework to real scenarios. Teams worked together to evaluate hypothetical situations and determine appropriate improvements to grow based on the framework's criteria. This hands-on approach not only helped everyone understand the framework more deeply but also sparked valuable discussions about expectations at different levels.

When rolling out the framework:

1. Present it as a living document that will evolve with the organization
2. Provide clear examples of behaviors and expectations at each level
3. Train managers on using the framework for career discussions
4. Create opportunities for engineers to ask questions and provide input
5. Consider interactive workshops to make the framework more tangible

One particularly effective approach is encouraging engineers to use the framework actively in their development planning. Some engineers might track their progress against the framework's expectations in what we call Achievement documents, noting milestones and achievements they want to keep track of for their growth. 

The real value emerges as the framework becomes part of your engineering culture. Engineers should be able to self-assess their work accurately and understand what is needed to progress, and managers should find it easier to have meaningful career conversations and make promotion decisions.

Continuous Improvement of Your Career Framework

Your career framework should evolve as your organization grows and changes. Each new hire brings an opportunity to gather feedback and refine the framework further. The key is maintaining clarity while adapting to new needs and challenges.

Remember that the goal isn't to create the perfect framework, but rather to provide clear guidance that helps your engineers grow and your organization succeed. Start simple, focus on clarity, and let your framework evolve through real-world use and feedback.

Join Our Engineering Team

We're actively growing our engineering team and looking for individuals who are excited about working in an environment that values clear growth paths and professional development. If you're interested in joining a team where career progression is transparent and supported, check out our open positions on our Careers Page.