Summary

Craft

Impact & Execution

Collaboration

Hiring & Growth

L1

Owns individual tasks and contributes to team execution through defined responsibilities and collaboration.

My code is free of obvious bugs and clearly structured.

I can read, understand, and debug code that I didn't originally write.

I am able to unblock myself, either independently or with guidance from another engineer.

I execute on clearly defined tasks and designs assigned to me.

I ask questions proactively and incorporate feedback effectively.

I adopt team processes and practices that help my team operate smoothly.

I actively seek learning opportunities and contribute to my professional growth.

L2

Owns complete features, independently delivering quality code and actively engaging in product definition and team practices.

I effectively contribute to a large, existing codebase, debugging and extending code from others.

I demonstrate strong familiarity with the common patterns and libraries in my programming ecosystem.

I can independently break problems into smaller tasks and develop code with clear separation of concerns.

I document systems and features clearly and retroactively when needed.

I own the delivery of complete features, balancing timely shipping with quality.

I proactively communicate project progress, potential risks, and necessary tradeoffs clearly.

I ensure the successful rollout of the feature I develop by responding to issues as they come up.

I partner effectively with product and design to define and scope new features.

I collaborate closely with my team on technical approaches, ensuring realistic timelines and task breakdowns.

I contribute to the team culture, supporting a collaborative and inclusive environment.

I actively participate in the interview process and represent our company positively to candidates.

I proactively seek feedback and work on identified areas for personal and professional growth.

L3

Owns significant areas of product functionality, drives technical excellence, and contributes strategically to team and organizational goals.

I deliver high-quality, well-tested, maintainable, and performant code that anticipates potential failure domains.

I proactively document complex systems and features clearly for cross-functional stakeholders.

I independently roll out substantial features, proactively address risks, and follow through on the impact of my work (such as by reviewing user sessions, building and maintaining reporting / dashboards / alerting, reviewing amplitude dashboards, and iterating based on real-world feedback).

I identify and clearly articulate tradeoffs, influencing product and technical decisions.

I mentor junior engineers primarily through code reviews, pairing, and sharing best practices.

I help teammates learn how to approach problems, offering frameworks or guiding questions.

In lieu of opportunities to provide structured mentorship, I consistently and willingly support my peers.

I proactively solve team-level technical and process issues, enabling faster and more efficient execution.

I advocate for improvements to team culture and processes, ensuring inclusive collaboration.

I communicate my team’s goals and technical strategy clearly to peers and stakeholders.

I help break down well-scoped problems into smaller, tractable tasks for myself and teammates.

I regularly participate in interviewing when opportunities arise and represent Found positively. (Expectation is about quality, not frequency.)

I support the growth of my teammates through tech talks, and pair programming.

I continuously seek and act upon constructive feedback from peers and leadership.

L4

Owns complex, cross-team initiatives, drives proactive ownership and mentors others in tackling complex problems, and influences strategic technical direction.

I architect and define high-level system designs that achieve our strategic roadmap.

I address cross-system technical issues efficiently, demonstrating deep expertise in our stack.

I maintain and continuously raise our engineering quality bar, identifying common pitfalls and advocating effective solutions.

I own complex, multi-team spanning initiatives (e.g., KYB across Risk and GP, check access).

I deliver execution impact (ensuring complex projects are delivered reliably) and also shape roadmap influence (helping define technical direction).

Follow-through and proactive ownership are key differentiators: I carry initiatives end-to-end, anticipate blockers, and ensure adoption and iteration.

I identify, prioritize, and drive initiatives based on their measurable impact on company goals, consistently seeing tedious and challenging tasks through to completion.

I refine and scale team strategies, ensuring they align clearly with broader organizational priorities and are communicated effectively.

I mentor engineers beyond code reviews and RFC feedback by:

- Helping others break down large, ambiguous, cross-team problems into tractable pieces.

- Teaching teammates approaches for completing complex work.

Cross-team mentorship is valuable but not always available; consistent impactful mentorship within and across immediate teams is the baseline.

I foster mentorship culture within the team, actively supporting teammates’ career growth.

I identify and proactively address organizational bottlenecks and barriers to team success.

I contribute meaningfully to hiring when opportunities exist, focusing on raising the bar in interviews and candidate evaluation (quality, not frequency).

I help refine and improve hiring practices (e.g., interview questions, evaluation rubrics, and process improvements).

I mentor and coach peers by sharing approaches, frameworks, and feedback that elevate others’ professional growth, regardless of team boundaries.

I actively engage in public or internal forums (e.g., tech talks, blog posts) to represent Found's engineering.

L5

Leads major technical areas with company-wide impact, defines long-term strategy, acts as a culture carrier, and drives engineering-wide improvements.

I set and uphold engineering standards across the organization, making consequential technical choices backed by clear rationale.

I ensure our major product areas align with company goals and have a clear technical direction.

I take on high-risk or ambiguous engineering projects, guiding them to successful outcomes.

I am responsible for end-to-end ownership and success of major product areas (e.g. the entirety of onboarding, multiple businesses, multi owner), clearly understanding and driving strategic cross-functional implications.

I consistently demonstrate the ability to manage ambiguity, complex technical problems, and drive organizational improvements.

I take initiative to modernize infrastructure, streamline development processes, or increase engineering leverage across the org.

I influence engineering-wide culture by leading by example, sharing best practices, and elevating expectations around quality, process, and effectiveness.

I drive systemic changes in how engineering teams operate, such as improving our on-call practices, architecture documentation, incident response, or roadmap planning processes.

I represent engineering externally, fostering recognition as a technical leader beyond the immediate organization.

I am trusted to work independently on impactful problems and am often brought in to drive or redirect critical initiatives.

I proactively partner with Engineering Managers and Product Managers to shape product strategy, influence roadmap priorities, and align technical execution with business outcomes.

I shape and lead hiring initiatives to meet long-term technical needs, ensuring bar-raising evaluation and thoughtful role definition.

I coach others in interviewing, candidate assessment, and thoughtful team composition — balancing skills, seniority, and diversity to meet long-term org needs.

I mentor extensively, developing engineers and engineering leaders across multiple teams.

I am a culture carrier: I actively shape and sustain Found’s engineering culture, values, and community. Examples include leading dev drop-ins, organizing internal meetups, or championing inclusivity and collaboration.

L6

Provides visionary technical leadership, drives strategic initiatives across the entire company, and represents Found at the highest organizational levels externally.

While not always hands-on, I maintain deep technical expertise, guiding the company's technical strategy and decisions.

I lead complex, company-wide initiatives with significant strategic impact.

I define and communicate long-term strategic direction across product, design, and technical domains.

I represent Found strategically at the highest levels, including to the Board, investors, and external stakeholders.

I am recognized internally and externally as a thought leader, effectively influencing industry and community standards.

At this level, external engagement (industry events, thought leadership, recognition) is an explicit expectation.

I build high-performing, strategically-aligned teams through rigorous hiring standards, effective performance management, and mentoring.

I drive organizational knowledge sharing and mentor senior leaders across the company.