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:

GitOps Practices 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:

Chaos Engineering Need
GitOps Practices 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:

Ansible Need
Apache Kafka Need
AWS Need
Backup & Disaster Recovery Need
Capacity Planning Need
CDN & Edge Computing Need
Chaos Engineering Need
Code Review Need
Crossplane Need
Disaster Recovery Design Need
Docker Need
Envoy Proxy Need
Git Advanced Need
GitHub Copilot Need
GitOps Practices Need
Helm Need
Istio Service Mesh Need
Kubernetes Advanced Need
Kubernetes Core Need
OpenTelemetry Need
OWASP & Application Security Need
PostgreSQL Need
Prometheus & Grafana Need
Pulumi Need
Python Web Frameworks Need
Redis Need
REST API Design Need
Secrets Management Need
Serverless Functions Need
SLI / SLO / SLA Need
Terraform Need
VPN & Network Isolation Need
Algorithms & Complexity Need
Async Programming Need
Load Balancing Need
Kubernetes Security Need
Cloud Security Need
Documentation as Code Need
Code Quality & Refactoring Need
Network Fundamentals Need
Replication & High Availability Need
Network Security Need
Container Security Scanning Need
Structured Logging Need
Data Structures 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:

Ansible Need
Apache Kafka Need
AWS Need
Backup & Disaster Recovery Need
Capacity Planning Need
CDN & Edge Computing Need
Chaos Engineering Need
Code Review Need
Crossplane Need
Disaster Recovery Design Need
Docker Need
Envoy Proxy Need
Git Advanced Need
GitHub Copilot Need
GitOps Practices Need
Helm Need
Istio Service Mesh Need
Kubernetes Advanced Need
Kubernetes Core Need
OpenTelemetry Need
OWASP & Application Security Need
PostgreSQL Need
Prometheus & Grafana Need
Pulumi Need
Python Web Frameworks Need
Redis Need
REST API Design Need
Secrets Management Need
Serverless Functions Need
SLI / SLO / SLA Need
Terraform Need
VPN & Network Isolation Need
Algorithms & Complexity Need
Async Programming Need
Load Balancing Need
Kubernetes Security Need
Cloud Security Need
Documentation as Code Need
Code Quality & Refactoring Need
Network Fundamentals Need
Replication & High Availability Need
Network Security Need
Container Security Scanning Need
Structured Logging Need
Data Structures 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:

Ansible Need
Apache Kafka Need
AWS Need
Backup & Disaster Recovery Need
Capacity Planning Need
CDN & Edge Computing Need
Code Review Need
Crossplane Need
Disaster Recovery Design Need
Docker Need
Envoy Proxy Need
Git Advanced Need
GitHub Copilot Need
Helm Need
Istio Service Mesh Need
Kubernetes Advanced Need
Kubernetes Core Need
OpenTelemetry Need
OWASP & Application Security Need
PostgreSQL Need
Prometheus & Grafana Need
Pulumi Need
Python Web Frameworks Need
Redis Need
REST API Design Need
Secrets Management Need
Serverless Functions Need
SLI / SLO / SLA Need
Terraform Need
VPN & Network Isolation Need
Algorithms & Complexity Need
Async Programming Need
Load Balancing Need
Kubernetes Security Need
Cloud Security Need
Documentation as Code Need
Code Quality & Refactoring Need
Network Fundamentals Need
Replication & High Availability Need
Network Security Need
Container Security Scanning Need
Structured Logging Need
Data Structures Need

Gap analysis: skills to develop

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

Chaos Engineering

Conducts infrastructure chaos experiments: tests database failover (RDS failover, Redis sentinel), network partition between AZs, disk failure scenarios. Uses AWS Fault Injection Simulator or terraform-based fault injection for cloud infrastructure.

GitOps Practices

Implements GitOps for infrastructure: configures Atlantis/Spacelift for automated Terraform apply from PRs, organizes Terraform modules in Git with versioning, manages infrastructure secrets through Vault integration. Ensures plan review workflow before apply.