Senior 1 (S1) engineers are expected to improve the performance of those around them. This could be through additional official responsibilities such as line managing or tech leading, or through unofficial means such as mentoring or regular pairing. S1 engineers should be able to tackle more complicated technical problems, and explain and justify their approaches to their team. We expect S1 engineers to pick up work outside of their delivery team and manage that work effectively against their delivery team’s priorities. S1 engineers require very little oversight beyond high level direction.
The competencies for Senior Engineer 1 are outlined below. Before reviewing them, it is helpful to review how to use these competencies.
Area | Competency |
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Technical |
Builds products ensuring they take adequate steps to protect sensitive data, e.g.
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Technical |
Implements appropriate observability and monitoring when building a solution, e.g.
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Technical |
Evaluates third-party software to use in projects, e.g.
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Technical |
Leads on fixing live incidents in production, e.g.
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Technical |
Understands the security attack vectors for their area of technology and mitigates against them, e.g.
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Technical |
Makes pragmatic decisions about technical trade-offs within their project, e.g.
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Technical |
Delivers high quality code and solutions, e.g.
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Technical |
Encourages others to deliver high quality code and solutions, e.g.
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Technical |
Regularly and independently debugs and fixes bugs regardless of origin, e.g.
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Technical |
Builds software or services considering resilience, performance and failure modes, e.g.
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Technical |
Chooses the appropriate tool, technology or software for a task, e.g.
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Technical |
Builds and works with systems involving multiple, independent technical parts, e.g.
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Technical |
Considers the technical direction of their group or the wider department when coming up with technical solutions, e.g.
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Communication |
Communicates technical concepts clearly and adapts that communication to the audience, e.g.
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Communication |
Facilitates productive discussions with clear outcomes, e.g.
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Communication |
Contributes to hiring process, e.g.
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Delivery |
Prioritises technical work for the team (usually with others) |
Delivery |
Breaks down large complex technical proposals into discrete tasks, e.g.
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Delivery |
Communicates team/work's status upwards to a Principal or Technical Director |
Delivery |
Where appropriate, builds on other teams' work to solve problems, e.g.
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Delivery |
Moves blockers to enable more junior engineers to work, e.g.
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Delivery |
Tackles simple cross team technical issues, e.g.
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Delivery |
Actively seeks the views of other teams to help guide work, e.g.
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Delivery |
Improves delivery process and encourages others to do the same, e.g.
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Delivery |
Manages, prioritises and communicates own workload |
Leadership |
Influences a community of practice, e.g.
|
Leadership |
Is an ambassador for their team across FT technology, e.g.
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Leadership |
Contributes to the personal development of more junior people, e.g.
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Leadership |
Shows technical leadership, e.g.
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Leadership |
Shares knowledge with others internally, e.g.
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Leadership |
Actively fosters an inclusive team culture, e.g.
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