Recognizing excellence at different career levels
Rate yourself on ten dimensions and see your profile take shape.
15.1The breadth of responsibility
Excellence at every level
A development proposal, not a standardization of job titles. The number of agents you use does not determine seniority.
15.2Self-assessment
Draw your profile
AI can be used at every level. The scale measures autonomy in driving and evaluating the work: 0 Dependence · 1 Assisted execution · 2 Bounded autonomy · 3 Judgment · 4 Shared capability. Don’t sum the scores — use the shape to pick your next development experience and spot gaps incompatible with your current responsibility.
Rate each dimension on a real task you did recently. The radar is for choosing your next development experience — not a scientific score.
- Product & domain
Can I explain why the change matters and how to recognize value? · Bounded autonomy
- Specification
- Fundamentals
- Context
- Delegation
- Verification
- Security
- Operations
- Learning
- Collective effect
Suggested next focus
- Product & domain · 2/4Study: Fundamentals →
- Specification · 2/4Study: Working with agents →
15.3A portfolio for the new role
Show judgment, not just artifacts
Present a problem, a solution contract, architecture decisions, division of work, validation evidence and observed effect — and the role you played and the limits you recognized. A strong portfolio includes a failure you found and how it changed the process, and distinguishes prototype, experiment and system in operation.
Key takeaways
- 1
Seniority is the breadth of responsibility you can carry, not the number of agents you run.
- 2
Use the ten-dimension radar to choose your next development experience.
- 3
Build a portfolio that shows contracts, evidence, failures and observed effect.
Check your understanding
Question 1 of 2
A senior engineer now does fewer manual reviews than last year. What could that indicate?
Read the full section of the original reportThe complete, unabridged text — with every source and nuance.
15.1. The breadth of responsibility remains decisive
The profiles below are a development proposal, not a standardization of job titles.
| Profile | Responsibility to develop | Evidence of excellence |
|---|---|---|
| Early career | Understand and complete bounded tasks with AI | Explains behavior, detects edge cases, and demonstrates that things work. |
| Mid-level | Drive a feature through the delivery cycle | Formulates the contract, coordinates execution, validates, and monitors operation. |
| Senior | Resolve ambiguities and expand the team's autonomy | Translates judgment into architecture, checks, and reusable context. |
| Staff or principal | Improve decisions and flow across teams | Removes structural bottlenecks and creates shared capabilities with observed effect. |
| Engineering leadership | Create conditions, priorities, and incentives | Provides infrastructure, training, accountability, and metrics consistent with outcomes. |
A senior engineer can demonstrate growth by producing fewer manual reviews because they created better controls. A beginner can demonstrate growth by producing a smaller project that they understand and can operate. The number of agents used does not determine seniority.
15.2. Self-assessment rubric
Use the scale to evaluate each dimension on a real task:
AI can be used at every level. The scale measures autonomy in driving and evaluating the work; “guidance” means the additional support needed to exercise that judgment.
- 0 — Dependence: I cannot drive or evaluate this part.
- 1 — Assisted execution: I can make progress with frequent guidance.
- 2 — Bounded autonomy: I can complete familiar situations and recognize limits.
- 3 — Judgment: I can handle ambiguities, investigate failures, and justify choices.
- 4 — Shared capability: I can improve the process and enable others to do better.
| Dimension | Assessment question |
|---|---|
| Product and domain | Can I explain why the change matters and how to recognize value? |
| Specification | Did I make behavior, invariants, limits, and completion explicit? |
| Fundamentals | Can I predict consequences and notice technical inconsistencies? |
| Context | Does the agent find sufficient, reliable, and current information? |
| Delegation | Does the work progress without depending on repetitive oversight? |
| Verification | Do I know which errors my evidence detects and which it leaves open? |
| Security | Do I know the reach of the access granted and the consequences of the operations? |
| Operations | Can I observe, diagnose, and recover the change in use? |
| Learning | Do I demonstrate understanding that transfers to new situations? |
| Collective effect | Does my improvement help other people without depending on my presence? |
Do not add up the scores as if they formed a scientific measure of professional worth. Use the distribution to choose the next development experience and to identify gaps that are incompatible with your current responsibility.
15.3. A portfolio suited to the new role
A professional portfolio can present a problem, a solution contract, architectural decisions, division of work, validation evidence, and observed effect. It should show the role the engineer played and the limits they recognized.
A good demonstration includes a failure that was found and the way it changed the process. It also distinguishes prototype, experiment, and system in operation. This makes it possible to evaluate discernment and delivery capability, beyond the appearance of the artifact.
For interviews and internal training, a useful activity is to propose a change with AI and introduce a variation: concurrency, a timeout, greater volume, or a conflicting requirement. What is observed is how the person clarifies the situation, chooses evidence, and adapts the solution. The activity should be adjusted to the domain and is not a validated psychometric test.