Career Ladders
Career ladder examples by role
Level definitions, titles, scope, and promotion criteria for 40+ roles, ready to adapt for your organization.
A career ladder maps the levels, titles, scope, and promotion criteria for a specific role, so growth stops being a guessing game. Every page linked below breaks a function down level by level, from entry scope to executive scope, with the skills expected at each stop. Where a role splits into individual contributor and management paths, we show both tracks side by side so you can see exactly where they diverge.
What is a career ladder?
A career ladder is a structured framework that defines the levels, titles, expectations, and promotion criteria for a given role or function. It makes growth visible to employees and consistent across managers. Each level in the ladder describes the scope, autonomy, and competencies expected, so employees know exactly what "the next level" requires, not just a vague sense of "demonstrate more impact."
People Management & Leadership
Engineering
Engineering
IC1 → Staff+ · M1 → VP Eng
Our most detailed ladder: IC and management tracks with level definitions, titles, scope, and promotion criteria.
QA Engineer
Engineer I → Principal
QA career ladder: individual contributor and engineering management paths.
Backend Engineer
IC1 → Principal
Backend engineer career ladder, from associate to principal, covering API ownership, data layer, and distributed systems.
Frontend Engineer
IC1 → Principal
Frontend engineer career ladder, from associate to principal, covering UI architecture, performance, and accessibility.
DevOps Engineer
IC1 → Principal
DevOps engineer career ladder, from associate to principal, covering CI/CD, infrastructure as code, and release engineering.
Site Reliability Engineer
IC1 → Principal
SRE career ladder, from associate to principal, covering SLOs, on-call, incident response, and capacity planning.
Mobile Engineer
IC1 → Principal
Mobile engineer career ladder, from associate to principal, covering iOS, Android, cross-platform, and app store release cycles.
Solutions Architect
Associate → Director
Solutions architect career ladder, from associate to director, covering pre-sales technical design and enterprise integration.
Security Engineer
IC1 → Principal
Security engineer career ladder covering appsec, infrastructure security, and incident response, junior to principal.
Engineering Manager
M1 → CTO
Engineering management career ladder from first-time manager to CTO, with team sizes and promotion criteria.
Data & AI
Data Analyst / Scientist
Analyst → Principal
Data career ladder: analyst, scientist, and ML engineer tracks.
Data Engineer
IC1 → Principal
Data engineer career ladder covering pipeline architecture, ETL, and data platform ownership from junior to principal.
Machine Learning Engineer
IC1 → Principal
ML engineer career ladder covering production model deployment, serving, and MLOps from junior to principal.
Product & Design
Product Manager
APM → CPO
From associate PM to CPO: levels, titles, scope, and promotion criteria.
Designer (UX/Product)
IC1 → Principal
UX and product design career track, from individual contributor to principal designer.
UX Researcher
IC1 → Principal
UX researcher career ladder covering research methods, ResearchOps, and insights strategy, IC and management.
Technical Writer
IC1 → Principal
Technical writer career ladder covering API docs, information architecture, and docs-as-code, junior to principal.
Marketing & Sales
Marketing
Coordinator → CMO
Marketing career ladder: generalist and specialist tracks from coordinator to CMO.
Sales
SDR → VP Sales
Sales career ladder, from SDR to AE to management track.
Revenue Operations
RevOps Analyst → VP RevOps
Revenue operations career ladder, CRM systems, forecasting infrastructure, and GTM data alignment, analyst to VP.
Content Marketing
Content Writer → VP of Content
Content marketing career ladder, from content writer to VP of Content, covering editorial strategy, SEO content, and content operations.
Product Marketing Manager
Associate PMM → VP of Product Marketing
Product marketing career ladder, from Associate PMM to VP, covering positioning, messaging, launches, and sales enablement.
Solutions Engineer
SE I → VP Solutions Engineering
Solutions engineer (sales engineer) career ladder, from SE I to VP, covering technical evaluations, demos, and POCs.
Customer & Support
People & Talent
HR / People Ops
Coordinator → CPO
HR and people operations career ladder, from coordinator to Chief People Officer.
Recruiter / Talent Acquisition
Recruiting Coordinator → VP of TA
Recruiter and talent acquisition career ladder - from recruiting coordinator to VP of talent acquisition.
Learning & Development
L&D Coordinator → VP of Learning
Learning and development career ladder - instructional design, training delivery, and talent development programs.
Finance, Legal & Compliance
Finance
Analyst → CFO
Finance career ladder, from financial analyst to CFO track.
Accountant
Staff Accountant → CFO
Accountant career ladder - staff accountant to controller and the CFO track, with GAAP and audit scope.
Legal Counsel
Associate Counsel → General Counsel
In-house legal counsel career ladder - from associate counsel to general counsel and chief legal officer.
Compliance Officer
Compliance Analyst → Chief Compliance Officer
Compliance career ladder, from compliance analyst to Chief Compliance Officer, covering SOC 2, data privacy, and audit management.
Operations & Administration
Operations
Coordinator → COO
Operations career ladder: business and revenue operations tracks.
Business Analyst
Associate BA → Director of BA
Business analyst career ladder - requirements gathering, process mapping, and stakeholder translation from associate to director.
Project Manager
Project Coordinator → VP of PMO
Project manager career ladder - delivery and execution track from project coordinator to VP of PMO.
Procurement
Analyst/Buyer → CPO
Procurement career ladder, from procurement analyst to CPO, covering sourcing, vendor negotiation, and category management.
Supply Chain
Analyst → CSCO
Supply chain career ladder, from supply chain analyst to CSCO, covering demand planning, inventory, and logistics.
Executive Assistant
EA → Executive Business Partner
Executive assistant career ladder, one-to-one support for a specific executive, from admin assistant to EBP.
Office Manager
Coordinator → Head of Workplace
Office manager career ladder, facility and workplace-wide operations, from office coordinator to head of workplace experience.
Consultant
Analyst → Partner
Management consulting career ladder, from analyst to partner, including up-or-out promotion dynamics.
IT Support
Help Desk Technician → VP of IT / CIO
IT support career ladder, from help desk technician to CIO track, covering desktop support, sysadmin, and IT leadership.
Why build a career ladder?
Reduces "how do I get promoted?" anxiety
Employees who know what the next level requires don't need to guess or lobby. They can self-assess and have structured conversations with their manager.
Makes promotions fair and defensible
When criteria are documented, promotion decisions can be explained. Without a ladder, promotion feels arbitrary, which is both a retention problem and a fairness problem.
Guides hiring and review calibration
A clear level description makes hiring conversations ("are we hiring an L4 or L5?") and performance calibration ("is this L3 or L4 behavior?") less subjective.
Build your career framework in Harmny
Once you've built your career ladders, Harmny makes them live: employees see their gap to the next level in real time, and development goals connect directly to the framework.
Start here
New to career ladders? Start with career ladder levels explained for a plain breakdown of what a level actually means, then come back and pick a role above. For the most detailed example on the site, see the engineering career ladder, which maps seven IC levels alongside a full management track. If you manage people across any function, the management career ladder covers the function-agnostic path from New Manager to VP.
Need definitions first? The glossary covers what a career ladder is and how career levels differ from job titles. Our career progression framework guide walks through building a ladder from scratch, and competency frameworks shows how Harmny turns those levels into something employees see day to day. Pair it with the competency matrix template to map skills to levels for any role above.