Select your current position

Pick a role and level — we'll show the growth path, skills and gap analysis.

Development path

Junior

0-2 years

Current

Responsibility: Completing tasks under the guidance of senior colleagues. Learning the codebase, standards, and team processes. Writing code to spec, fixing simple bugs, writing tests.

Key skills:

Code Review Need
Git Advanced Need
MVVM Pattern Need
Qt / C++ Desktop Need
Unit Testing Need
Code Quality & Refactoring Need
Multithreading Need
Memory Management Need

Middle

2-5 years

Next

Responsibility: Independently developing features from decomposition to deployment. Participating in code review. Optimizing performance. Mentoring junior developers. Taking part in architecture discussions.

Key skills:

Code Review Need
Git Advanced Need
MVVM Pattern Need
Qt / C++ Desktop Need
Unit Testing Need
Code Quality & Refactoring Need
Multithreading Need
Memory Management Need

Senior

5-8 years

Responsibility: Designing the architecture of components and services. Solving complex technical problems. Managing technical debt. Code review as a quality gatekeeper. Mentoring middle developers. Choosing technologies for new tasks.

Key skills:

Auto-Update Mechanisms Need
Benchmarking Tools & Methodology Need
ChatGPT / Claude Need
Code Review Need
CPU Profiling Need
Desktop App Packaging: MSI, DMG, AppImage Need
E2E Testing Need
Git Advanced Need
GitHub Actions / GitLab CI Need
GitHub Copilot Need
GTK / Linux Desktop Need
I/O & Disk Profiling Need
IPC: Inter-Process Communication Need
Latency Optimization Need
Memory Profiling Need
MVVM Pattern Need
Offline-First & Local Storage Need
OWASP & Application Security Need
Plugin Architecture Need
PostgreSQL Need
Qt / C++ Desktop Need
Resource Optimization FinOps Need
REST API Design Need
Unit Testing Need
Algorithms & Complexity Need
Async Programming Need
Generics & Parametric Polymorphism Need
Integration Testing Need
Code Quality & Refactoring Need
Multithreading Need
Design Patterns Need
Secure Coding Practices Need
OOP & SOLID Principles Need
Memory Profiling Need
Structured Logging Need
Data Structures Need
Type Safety & Type Systems Need
Memory Management Need

Lead / Staff

7-12 years

Responsibility: Technical leadership of a team or area. Designing system architecture. Coordinating with other teams. Establishing standards and best practices. Participating in hiring. Planning the technical roadmap.

Key skills:

Auto-Update Mechanisms Need
Benchmarking Tools & Methodology Need
ChatGPT / Claude Need
Code Review Need
CPU Profiling Need
Desktop App Packaging: MSI, DMG, AppImage Need
E2E Testing Need
Git Advanced Need
GitHub Actions / GitLab CI Need
GitHub Copilot Need
GTK / Linux Desktop Need
I/O & Disk Profiling Need
IPC: Inter-Process Communication Need
Latency Optimization Need
Memory Profiling Need
MVVM Pattern Need
Offline-First & Local Storage Need
OWASP & Application Security Need
Plugin Architecture Need
PostgreSQL Need
Qt / C++ Desktop Need
Resource Optimization FinOps Need
REST API Design Need
Unit Testing Need
Algorithms & Complexity Need
Async Programming Need
Generics & Parametric Polymorphism Need
Integration Testing Need
Code Quality & Refactoring Need
Multithreading Need
Design Patterns Need
Secure Coding Practices Need
OOP & SOLID Principles Need
Memory Profiling Need
Structured Logging Need
Data Structures Need
Type Safety & Type Systems Need
Memory Management Need

Principal

10+ years

Responsibility: Technical strategy at the company or domain level. Cross-organizational influence. Solving systemic business problems through technology. Mentoring lead engineers. Publicly representing the company.

Key skills:

Auto-Update Mechanisms Need
Benchmarking Tools & Methodology Need
ChatGPT / Claude Need
Code Review Need
CPU Profiling Need
Desktop App Packaging: MSI, DMG, AppImage Need
E2E Testing Need
Git Advanced Need
GitHub Actions / GitLab CI Need
GitHub Copilot Need
GTK / Linux Desktop Need
I/O & Disk Profiling Need
IPC: Inter-Process Communication Need
Latency Optimization Need
Memory Profiling Need
MVVM Pattern Need
Offline-First & Local Storage Need
OWASP & Application Security Need
Plugin Architecture Need
PostgreSQL Need
Qt / C++ Desktop Need
Resource Optimization FinOps Need
REST API Design Need
Unit Testing Need
Algorithms & Complexity Need
Async Programming Need
Generics & Parametric Polymorphism Need
Integration Testing Need
Code Quality & Refactoring Need
Multithreading Need
Design Patterns Need
Secure Coding Practices Need
OOP & SOLID Principles Need
Memory Profiling Need
Structured Logging Need
Data Structures Need
Type Safety & Type Systems Need
Memory Management Need

Gap analysis: skills to develop

To reach the next level you'll need to develop:

Code Review

Conducts code review for Qt/C++ code. Checks memory safety, thread safety, Qt best practices. Provides constructive feedback, suggests alternative solutions. Reviews QML code.

Git Advanced

Applies Git rebase, cherry-pick, bisect for debugging. Configures Git hooks for pre-commit checks (clang-format, lint). Works with Git submodules for Qt dependencies. Resolves merge conflicts in C++/QML.

MVVM Pattern

Applies MVVM with Command pattern through Qt. Uses QAbstractListModel for ViewModel, implements filtering through QSortFilterProxyModel. Organizes navigation through StackView and Router.

Qt / C++ Desktop

Independently develops Qt applications with QML and Qt Quick. Uses Model/View Architecture (QAbstractItemModel). Works with Qt Network, QThread and Qt SQL. Understands ownership and QObject lifecycle.

Unit Testing

Structures tests by modules with separate test suites. Uses QTest::addColumn for data-driven tests. Introduces code coverage through gcov/lcov. Mocks dependencies through GMock or manual stubs.

Code Quality & Refactoring

Configures clang-tidy with Qt-specific checks. Uses cppcheck and PVS-Studio for static analysis. Applies RAII and smart pointers (QScopedPointer, std::unique_ptr). Writes self-documenting code.

Multithreading

Implements thread pool through QThreadPool and QRunnable. Uses QMutex, QReadWriteLock, QSemaphore for synchronization. Applies QtConcurrent with QFuture/QFutureWatcher for async operations. Avoids race conditions.

Memory Management

Manages memory in Qt with implicit sharing (COW) and move semantics. Uses QSharedPointer for shared ownership. Analyzes memory leaks through Qt Creator memory profiler. Optimizes allocations through QVarLengthArray.