SWE 3 - Senior Software Engineer

I deliver continued business impact through a product vertical or technical system core to WHOOP. I exude strong technical leadership for my group and focus on the most complex and ambiguous problems for my team.

Scope

You lead and progress the team to technical success, up-leveling best practices and the operational excellence of your team. You expand your influence across your group so that teams in close vicinity are aligned.

Craft

Your code sets the example for high quality and best practices. Your code is easily maintainable, scalable, and extensible. You drive Operational Excellence, Security, and Quality standards with the team.

Your designs and architectures make good technical trade-offs and evaluate the short-term impact against the long-term value for the business. You look for opportunities to simplify the system and make it easier to maintain - whether that is removing code, defining better interfaces, or proactively fixing an architectural deficiency.

Responsibility	Behaviors
Technical	I capitalize on past contributions to create leverage in future contributions such that I can move faster within our complicated software. I maintain awareness of industry trends and tools that help me deliver software.
Scoping & Estimation	I coordinate scoping conversations on new projects and provide estimates to my product manager. I provide alternative solutions that might increase quality or reduce complexity. I estimate large projects but also advise where projects should be broken up. I break up projects into chunks that can be delivered individually, understanding that they still provide value to the end customer.
Quality	I keep tests up to date across software my team works on. I conduct many PR reviews, adding candid feedback to maintain high quality. I identify tech debt within my group, gain buy-in, and drive change to improve software health & quality.
Operational Excellence	I debug and solve issues within my group’s systems and always get to the root cause. I communicate outward root causes of issues and take steps for prevention in the future. I proactively deliver optimizations of systems to better team health and my software’s performance.
Design	I provide clear architecture diagrams and documentation on design decisions and present those to stakeholders. I evaluate tradeoffs and negotiations with stakeholders on potential solutions. I deliver the right level of abstraction layers to provide long-term extensibility of my solutions.
Process Improvement	I help others understand how our technical systems work and how to impact them best. I improve how my team works through sprints or kanban style rituals.

Communication and Collaboration

You drive conversations between the team and stakeholders to determine what technical problems must be solved and how. You leverage your experience, feedback from others, and data to drive consensus. You are comfortable tailoring your written and verbal communication up to leadership and to non-technical audiences when required. Your team, group, and guild come to you for design reviews. You inject technical perspectives and context into conversations within the organization.

Responsibility	Behaviors
Autonomy	I proactively reach out to area experts when learning a new domain. I pull in research from the industry to help unblock my team.
Accountability	I contribute to grooming, priority, and maintenance decisions for my team, and they rely on my expertise to advise decision making. I look to proactively fill gaps in maintenance and monitoring, ensuring the health of my software and team. I put technical issues that impact my team to rest, aiming to drive a healthier software portfolio. When committing to work, I continuously drive it over the finish line.
Data Driven	I communicate the severity of issues using data and customer feedback when available. I seek feedback and metrics on my software through each stage of my rollout and address feedback as it comes in. I talk to product and business analytics to understand what potential solutions actually push the needle vs what does not.
Clarity	I communicate technical issues and decisions clearly and proactively to cross-functional audiences, sharing bad news transparently and quickly with supporting evidence. I communicate and celebrate team success and development broadly. I shape my communication based on the target audience. I solidify decisions and risk awareness within documentation. I circulate documentation driving discoverability and awareness.
Drives Consensus	I facilitate conversations between my team and other teams to drive consensus about a solution. I take the time to understand my peers' perspectives and views.

Coaching

You look to break down large problems into smaller, parallelizable pieces that your team can execute together. You use your skills and experience to perform high quality code reviews for your team and for your guild. Your team routinely delivers the right things in a timely manner because of you, but because of the practices and standards you instill in the team, they do not require your presence to be successful.

You mentor other engineers in your group and/or guild on technical, prioritization, and planning skills. You are active in interviewing and improving the process for onboarding new hires.

Responsibility	Behaviors
Mentorship	I share historical context about WHOOP and my engineering experiences with others such that they may learn to avoid pitfalls. I provide candid feedback in private and praise in public. I find opportunities that may help other engineers grow and look to delegate them, facilitating growth.
Group & Team Influence	I influence my group by coaching them on how to make great technical trade-offs and decisions. I up-level engineers outside of my group domain through direct technical contributions. I lead complex interview problems and dive deep into candidates' qualifications, seeking engineers that can up-level my team and myself. I consider the effect of my work on other teams and groups.

Strategy & Execution

As a senior engineer, you should begin to identify your strength in Strategy or Execution. Strategy involves looking at a longer time horizon to identify areas for the department to grow. Execution focuses on leveraging expertise to deliver results. You may find that one is more natural for you. It is not required for one individual to possess both skills.

You are trusted to guide current and future technology decisions. You advise your TL and/or GL on the team's priorities and strategy. You partner with Product to create the vision, injecting your experience to understand the scope and opportunities to de-risk delivery. You continually root cause and address systemic problems in your team's architecture. You work with Product and other departments to identify and scope initiatives for the team to execute.

Responsibility	Behaviors
Define Problems	I look to disambiguate problems by defining root causes and solutions. I provide communication upward and broadly about my proposed solutions.
Directionality	I look to the future in the areas I own and create directional proposals around what the future could look like. I can take vague direction from my manager, dive in, define, and deliver impact autonomously.
Staying Nimble	I can change direction quickly based on shifting Company needs.
Vision	I look to the future that I strive to create rather than the failures of the past.

Moving to the SWE 4 level

You have been at the Senior Level for 24 months and operating at the Staff level for at least 12 months.

Here are some areas you might focus on to bridge your experience at the next level:

• You lead ambiguous and technically complex projects from design to delivery that have a long-term impact on the business. You evaluate multiple potential solutions and make the right trade-offs. You deliver the critical path code but lead other engineers to help you deliver the final solution.
• Your work impacts teams in other groups. You level up the engineering excellence of your group, tackling at least one of the core challenges for the group, such as quality, operational excellence, scaling, or security.
• You perform design reviews and lead consultations for projects in your guild or other teams in your group.
• You mentor other SWE2s and seniors in your group or your guild. You perform code reviews that level up the code and the engineer.
• You set the standard for code and documentation across the company. Your written documents clearly articulate the assumptions and trade-offs you made.

Moving to the EM track

As a senior engineer, you have the option to move to the next level on the individual contributor track or to transition to the engineering management track. The EM role builds on and leverages individual contributor experience in pursuit of supporting a team. This section outlines what to start focusing on if you want to transition to the EM track.

• You begin to lead team-wide projects through planning, estimation, and organization, communicating effectively to the business the progress of projects.
• You begin to plan work beyond the current project by organizing upcoming projects and driving the alignment of projects to your team’s mission.
• You begin to foster the development of individuals on your team and create a culture of inclusion and growth.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Do I need to have been a senior to transition to the EM track?	Yes, all the EM roles require you to have prior SWE3 - Senior comparable experience. This is because the EM track builds on top of the IC experience gained up to the SWE3 level.
Can I move back from EM to SWE?	Of course! We believe in having people in the role that is right for them. If you find it is not the right role for you, please speak with your manager and we will support your transition. One way to test this out before making the move is to leverage the 3 bullet points above before transitioning fully.
If I am a SWE4 and want to be an EM, do I have to start at EM3?	No, we recommend you work with your manager to find the right fit and level that best suits a growth opportunity for you.
What if I want to start moving toward the management route but still want to contribute technically?	We recommend that you pick up some of the starting bullet points above as a middle ground between gaining management experience and still contributing technically. For example, leading and organizing a project for the team one month and then contributing to a project the next month is a great way to maintain technical contributions while you try your hand at EM responsibilities.