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
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:
Middle
2-5 years
Responsibility: Independently developing features from decomposition to deployment. Participating in code review. Optimizing performance. Mentoring junior developers. Taking part in architecture discussions.
Key skills:
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:
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:
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:
Gap analysis: skills to develop
To reach the next level you'll need to develop:
Independently applies 5G Core Network in practice. Understands trade-offs of different approaches. Solves typical tasks independently.
Independently implements tasks with Apache Kafka in SIP/WebRTC/IMS. Understands internals and optimizes performance. Writes tests using SIPp/integration tests.
Independently applies BGP / OSPF Routing in practice. Understands trade-offs of different approaches. Solves typical tasks independently.
Independently applies DNS Deep Dive in practice. Understands trade-offs of different approaches. Solves typical tasks independently.
Independently designs gRPC services for telecom network management — configuration distribution with streaming updates, efficient proto schemas for network element state and alarm data, and bidirectional streaming for real-time telemetry. Writes comprehensive proto documentation and conformance tests for telecom service contracts.
Independently applies HTTP/2 & HTTP/3 QUIC in practice. Understands trade-offs of different approaches. Solves typical tasks independently.
Optimizes telecom system latency: implements real-time protocol processing with bounded execution time, configures media pipeline for low-jitter operation, and reduces signaling path delays. Profiles call setup and media processing paths to identify bottlenecks. Implements quality of service (QoS) mechanisms for latency-sensitive traffic.
Independently applies Load Balancer Deep Dive L4/L7 in practice. Understands trade-offs of different approaches. Solves typical tasks independently.
Independently applies Network Automation: Netmiko, NAPALM in practice. Understands trade-offs of different approaches. Solves typical tasks independently.
Independently applies Reverse Proxy: NGINX, Traefik, Caddy in practice. Understands trade-offs of different approaches. Solves typical tasks independently.
Independently applies Signaling Protocols in practice. Understands trade-offs of different approaches. Solves typical tasks independently.
Independently applies Software-Defined Networking (SDN) in practice. Understands trade-offs of different approaches. Solves typical tasks independently.
Independently applies TCP/IP Deep Dive in practice. Understands trade-offs of different approaches. Solves typical tasks independently.
Independently applies Telecom Billing Systems in practice. Understands trade-offs of different approaches. Solves typical tasks independently.
Optimizes signaling message throughput by implementing efficient SIP transaction state machines and reducing per-message memory allocations. Tunes media stream capacity by configuring RTP multiplexing and jitter buffer strategies. Profiles call processing pipelines to eliminate redundant codec negotiations and achieves higher concurrent call density per server instance.
Independently applies VoIP / SIP Protocol in practice. Understands trade-offs of different approaches. Solves typical tasks independently.
Independently applies WebRTC in practice. Understands trade-offs of different approaches. Solves typical tasks independently.
Implements load testing for telecom services: SIPp-based signaling load tests, media quality testing under concurrent call loads (MOS scoring), and network element stress testing. Creates test scenarios that validate SLA compliance at target call volumes. Implements automated performance regression testing for telecom protocol handlers.
Designs WebSocket APIs for telecom services: SIP signaling over WebSocket for WebRTC integration, real-time network event streaming for NOC dashboards, and subscriber notification services. Implements protocol-level features: message compression (permessage-deflate), binary frames for media control, and connection multiplexing for multi-service endpoints.
Independently implements network security measures in telecom systems: configures IPsec/GRE tunnels, sets up VLAN segmentation for signaling and media planes, and enforces TLS for SIP trunking. Monitors network anomalies with flow analysis tools and responds to DDoS attempts targeting telecom infrastructure.