Individual Contributors

Individual Contributors Path

This path was designed for those employees who do not want to follow a career as a manager but instead plan to develop their technical skills and use them to contribute to the goals and mission of Secure Group.

To move through the Individual Contributors Path, an employee needs to meet the criteria outlined in the Level & Step Chart below and score the minimum grade according to the Knowledge Accountability Index (KAI) of their position.

Progress up the Levels expands not only the technical competencies and knowledge required but also the range of teams, departments, and divisions an employee works with. For example, employees in Levels 1 and 2 usually work on their own projects in their team(s). Level 3 employees would work on department-wide tasks, while Level 4 and 5 would do cross-department projects and Level 6 experts would work on company-wide projects.

Individual Contributors Levels

Each Level and Step for Individual Contributors are evaluated based on well-defined criteria.

Knowledge

The ability to manage your own knowledge and learning is the foundation of improving your skills. This criteria examines employees’ ability to find, learn, and apply relevant knowledge, as well as use the Knowledge Accountability Index (KAI) and support the learning of others.

Levels Chart
IC Path	Description	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4	Level 5	Level 6
Knowledge	Application (of the KAI) and Focus	Understands how KAI concepts are used. The focus is on learning with guidance from others.	Continually develops skills. Applies relevant KAI knowledge to find resolutions for a variety of issues on a daily basis. The focus is on continuous self-learning.	Possess a full understanding of tasks/projects; resolves a wide range of issues in creative ways. Your focus is on developing through on-the-job experience.	Has a wide-ranging experience, is capable of using professional concepts and objectives correctly in order to accomplish tasks. The focus is on applying and enhancing knowledge or skill.	Has broad expertise or unique knowledge, uses a variety of skills to contribute to the development of Secure Group's business model, objectives, and principles and to achieve goals in creative and effective ways. Capable of transmitting knowledge to the other departments/employees (tech-sessions). The focus is on broad organizational/professional issues.	Expert in the field uses professional concepts in developing a resolution to critical issues and broad business matters. It's recognized in the industry. The focus is strategic.

Job Complexity

This criteria focuses on how well employees manage their day-to-day tasks. It tracks how well they are able to commit to the right amount of work, prioritize their tasks, find ways to improve processes, and deal with uncertainty and change. The scope of their work and the supervision they take and give also have an impact on their progress.

Levels Chart
IC Path	Description	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4	Level 5	Level 6
Job Complexity (defined in the Responsibility Assignment Matrixes)	Process Thinking	Understands their team's practices and processes. Follows the standard practices, procedures, and processes defined in the RACI and CODE-KS.	Sometimes focuses on the team's practices and processes and discusses improvements with team. Exercises judgment within defined procedures and practices described in the RACI and CODE-KS to determine appropriate action.	Frequently focuses on the team's practices and processes and discusses improvements with team. Demonstrates good judgment in selecting methods and techniques that act as effective solutions driving tangible results.	Always focuses on the teams' practices and processes and regularly discusses improvements with their team. Sometimes collaborates with others to improve organizational practices and processes. It is capable of always exercising proper judgment to select and define methods, techniques, and evaluation criteria that act as effective solutions driving tangible results.	Always focuses on practices and processes that affect several teams, discusses improvements with appropriate parties, and drives implementation. Usually collaborates with others to improve organizational practices and processes. Exercises independent judgment in defining methods, techniques and evaluation criteria that act as effective solutions driving tangible results.	Takes ownership and responsibility for organizational practices and processes and their continuous improvement. Acts as a spokesperson for Secure Group.
		The employee is informed about the departments' playbook and the type of information he/she can find there. Uses it as a reference to complete tasks.	Shows adherence to departments' playbooks. Sometimes uses them to leverage the results of his/her tasks and projects.	Shows strong adherence to playbooks and frequently uses them to leverage the results of his/her tasks and projects.	Shows strong adherence' to playbooks and serves as an example to teammates , ensuring they follow the same process.	Shows strong adherence to playbooks and ensures they are spread and followed in cross-department projects. Supports the manager with content creation.	Takes ownership regarding organizational playbooks, their usage, and continuous improvement.
	Work Breakdown	Works on limited scope issues. Understands value of rightsizing tasks.	Works on problems of moderate scope where analysis of situations or data requires reviews from a manager, a tech lead, or a senior employee. Before beginning work, ensures that tasks are appropriately sized with help from teammates and manager.	Works on problems of diverse scope specified in the RACI and CODE-KS where analysis of data requires evaluation of already identified factors. Reviews tasks critically and ensures they’re appropriately sized.	Works on complex issues determined in the RACI and CODE-KS where analysis of situations or data requires an in-depth evaluation of a variety of factors. Reviews tasks and projects critically and ensures they’re appropriately broken down and prioritized, and well understood by the team.	Works on important and unique tasks where analysis of situations or data requires an evaluation of intangible factors. Reviews cross-team work critically and ensures it’s appropriately broken down and prioritized, and well understood by all involved teams.	Works on issues that impact business success or addresses future concepts, products, and technologies. Reviews organization-wide work critically and ensures it’s appropriately broken down and prioritized across the organization.
	Prioritization, dependencies	Acts according to task prioritization.	Understands and acts according to task prioritization. Notes dependencies.	Ensures tasks are prioritized correctly, and that dependencies are noted.	Ensures dependencies are noted at tasks and projects and well understood by the team. Works within their team to foster a culture of priority setting and urgency in alignment with organizational strategy.	Ensures cross-team dependencies are noted and well understood by all teams involved and other relevant stakeholders. Works across teams to foster a culture of priority setting and urgency in alignment with organizational strategy.	Identifies dependencies across the organization and works with other ICs to resolve them before they become an issue, and installs preventative measures to mitigate repeat occurrences. Works across the organization to foster a culture of priority setting and urgency in alignment with organizational strategy.
	Dealing with ambiguity	Understands risks and chaos are part of the organization.	Usually handles risk, chaos, and uncertainty within their personal scope of work effectively. Usually decides and acts responsibly without having the total picture during routine business, and when in high-pressure situations.	Handles risk, chaos, and uncertainty within their personal scope of work effectively. Decides and acts responsibly without having the total picture during routine business and when in high-pressure situations.	Effectively handles risk, chaos, and uncertainty within their team. Decides and acts responsibly in their work with their team without having the total picture during routine business, as well as when in high-pressure situations.	Effectively handles risk, chaos, and uncertainty across several teams. Decides and acts responsibly in their work across teams without having the total picture during routine business, as well as when in high-pressure situations.	Effectively handles risk, chaos and uncertainty across the organization. Decides and acts responsibly in their work across the organization without having the total picture during routine business, as well as when in high-pressure situations.
	Reliability, delivery, accountability	Has daily conversation with the team about the progress of their work. Delivers on commitments with a sense of urgency.	Commits to a realistic amount of work, and works with their teammates both to ensure they understand priority and urgency, and to deliver upon them accordingly. Escalates any blockers and delays to their team daily. Clarifies expectations with their teammates.	Ensures their commitments are realistic, understands their priority and urgency, and delivers upon them accordingly. Anticipates and communicates blockers and delays for their work before they require escalation. Ensures expectations within their team are clarified between all parties involved.	Anticipates and communicates blockers and delays within their team’s projects, before they require escalation. Ensures expectations with their team and external stakeholders are clarified between all parties involved.	Successfully manages cross-team commitments, their progress, and deliverables. Anticipates and communicates blockers and delays across teams, before they require escalation. Ensures expectations across teams and stakeholders are clarified between all parties involved.	Successfully manages organization-wide commitments, their progress, and deliverables. Ensures expectations across the organization and external stakeholders are clarified between all parties involved.
	Economic thinking	Understands the importance of weighing cost and value in decision making. Asks more senior Ics and managers for help in applying this type of thinking to their tasks and projects.	When taking action, weighs cost and value in order to take the most cost-effective action with help from superiors. Sometimes uses this type of thinking to make suggestions to teammates.	When taking action, weighs cost and value in order to take the most cost-effective action. Uses this thinking in their own work and promotes the economic thinking towards teammates without jeopardizing quality and/or time.	When taking action, weighs cost and value in order to take the most cost-effective action. Uses this thinking in their own work, and to foster a culture within their team where people apply economic thinking to make timely decisions without jeopardizing the quality.	When taking action, weighs cost and value in order to make the most cost-effective action. Uses this thinking in their own work, and to foster a culture across several teams where people apply economic thinking to make timely decisions without jeopardizing the quality.	When taking action, weighs cost and value in order to make the most cost-effective action. Uses this thinking in their own work, and to foster a culture within the organization where people apply economic thinking to make timely decisions without jeopardizing the quality.
	Supervision	Normally receives detailed instructions on different tasks.	Usually receives general instructions on routine work and detailed instructions on new projects or assignments.	Normally receives general instructions on new assignments/projects.	Determines the methods and procedures to be followed on new assignments and acts as an advisor to other employee's activities.	Acts independently to determine methods and procedures on new or special assignments. Supervises and advises the activities of others.	Exercises wide latitude in determining objectives and approaches to critical assignments.

Teamwork

The ability of our teams to work together is crucial for achieving our goals, and this IC category evaluates how well our employees communicate and collaborate. Being able to actively receive and deliver feedback is essential for the continued development of our teams, as well as the habit of sharing and documenting information and knowledge. Communicating clearly with a diverse audience and collaborating across teams and departments are also necessary for progressing through this IC path.

Levels Chart
IC Path	Description	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4	Level 5	Level 6
Teamwork	Delivering feedback	You respond to requests. Understands how to deliver feedback in a useful manner.	You support colleagues. Delivers feedback to their teammates when applicable in a useful manner.	You actively engage with colleagues by providing constructive feedback and encourage collaboration. Delivers feedback to their team's business stakeholders when opportunities arise.	You motivate others to work with each other to reach the team's objectives. Facilitate and inspire cross-department and cross-team collaboration.	You are an advisor in establishing a collaborative culture. Facilitates the culture of delivering feedback across several teams as well as their respective business stakeholders. Actively demonstrates these behaviors.	You engage in internal transformational partnerships that lead to high-performance. Identify external opportunities and instills a culture based on collaboration and feedback delivery. Actively demonstrates these behaviors.
	Seeking and receiving feedback	Sometimes seeks out feedback from their teammates and manager and works to use feedback that they receive as a tool for growth.	Actively seeks out feedback from their teammates and manager and works to use feedback that they receive as a tool for growth.	Actively seeks out structured feedback from their teammates and manager and works to use feedback that they receive as a tool for growth.	Works within their team and with its business stakeholders to foster a culture of seeking out feedback and using it as a tool for growth. Actively demonstrates these behaviors.	Works across several teams and with their business stakeholders to foster a culture of seeking out feedback and using it as a tool for growth. Actively demonstrates these behaviors.	Works across the organization to foster a culture of seeking out feedback and using it as a tool for growth. Actively demonstrates these behaviors.
	Effective communication	Understands the importance of effective communication and in an audience-oriented way, in written and verbal form. Actively listens to others and ensures they are understood.	Usually communicates effectively, clearly, concisely, and in an audience-oriented way in written and verbal form both technical and non-technical subjects, to their teammates. Actively listens to others and ensures they are understood. Respects the time of the audience.	Communicates effectively, clearly, concisely in written and verbal form both technical and non-technical subjects, and in an audience-oriented way. Actively listens.	Is able to communicate effectively with a diverse team. Fosters a culture of clear, concise, effective, audience-oriented communication on their team, ensuring teammates actively listen to others and are understood. Actively demonstrates behaviors. Respects the time of the audience.	Is able to communicate effectively with a diverse set of teams. Fosters a culture of clear, concise, effective, audience-oriented communication across several teams, ensuring teammates actively listen to others and are understood. Actively demonstrates these behaviors. Respects the time of the audience.	Is able to communicate effectively across the company. Fosters a culture of clear, concise, effective, audience-oriented communication across the company, ensuring teammates actively listen to others and are understood. Actively demonstrates these behaviors. Respects the time of the audience.
	Knowledge Sharing	Understands their area of work and shares their knowledge frequently with their teammates. Attends tech-sessions.	Understands their work domain, shares their knowledge frequently with their teammates. Watches out for opportunities to share knowledge. Supports the creation of content and/or gives Tech-Sessions that are related to the application of tools within a defined process, with the supervision from superiors.	Understands their team's domain, shares their knowledge frequently with their teammates. Watches out for opportunities to share knowledge and encourages others to do the same. Creates content and/or provides Tech-Sessions related to processes without any supervision.	Fosters a culture of documentation and knowledge sharing within their team and with their team's business stakeholders. Actively demonstrates these behaviors. Creates content and/or gives Tech-Sessions related to our business: concepts, models, frameworks etc.	Fosters a culture of documentation and knowledge sharing across several teams and their respective business stakeholders. Actively demonstrates these behaviors. Identifies knowledge GAP from internal references and created relevant content to be applied in Tech-Sessions.	Fosters a culture of documentation and knowledge sharing across the organization. Actively demonstrates these behaviors. You identify knowledge gaps from external references and create relevant content to be applied in Tech-Sessions.
		The employee is informed about our documentation process and knows how to find information when needed.	The employee is responsible for gathering relevant information and data for Tech Leads to create documentation.	The employee becomes a Tech Lead and is responsible for creating and managing the department's documentation. If business role: responsible for writing and ensuring the accuracy of playbooks. If technical role: responsible for writing and ensuring the accuracy of technical documentation.	The employee is responsible for selecting processes and ensuring accurate documentation in the department. Collaborates with other ICs to manage cross-department documentation.	The employee prioritizes and ensures that the documentation is relevant and applicable to a variety of departments.	The employee is responsible for designing organizational processes from scratch and documenting them.
	Collaboration	When requested, helps their teammates overcome obstacles, resolve blockers, and complete work tasks. Gives or shares credit where due.	Sometimes helps their teammates overcome obstacles, resolve blockers, and complete work tasks. Gives or shares credit where due.	Consistently helps their teammates overcome obstacles, resolve blockers, and complete work tasks. Gives or shares credit where due.	Consistently works across teams to help them resolve blockers, and complete work tasks. Ensures that credit is shared and given where due.	Consistently works across different teams to enable them to support each other. Ensures that credit is shared and given where due.	Consistently works across the organization to enable teams to support each other. Ensures that credit is shared and given where due.
	Handling change	Openly shares their opinions and contributes to discussions in a respectful manner. Works with teammates to resolve disagreements in a healthy manner. Is open to changing their perspective and plans based on others' input.	Openly shares their opinions, understands diverse views, and contributes to discussions in a respectful manner. Approaches disagreement with their teammates non-defensively with inquisitiveness. Uses contradictory opinions as a basis for constructive, productive conversations. Is open to changing their perspective and plans based on others' input. Supports change across the team.	Encourages their teammates to openly share their opinions, integrates their point of view, and contributes to discussions in a respectful manner. Approaches disagreement non-defensively with inquisitiveness. Uses contradictory opinions as a basis for constructive, productive conversations. Is open to changing their perspective and plans based on others' input. Points out the need for change across the team.	Fosters a culture within their team where people are encouraged to share their opinions, function well across diverse groups, and contribute to discussions in a respectful manner. Approaches disagreement non-defensively with inquisitiveness, and uses contradictory opinions as a basis for constructive, productive conversations. Is open to changing their perspective and plans based on others' input. Makes compelling cases for change across the different teams.	Fosters a culture across several teams where people are encouraged to share their opinions. Facilitates engagement between people and contributes to discussions in a respectful manner, approaches disagreement non-defensively with inquisitiveness, and uses contradictory opinions as a basis for constructive, productive conversations. Works through surface-level disagreements to expose the concerns of disagreeing voices and integrates these concerns into their perspective and plans. Mobilizes others to initiate change.	Fosters an inclusive culture across the organization where people are encouraged to share their opinions and contribute to discussions in a respectful manner, approach disagreement non-defensively with inquisitiveness, and use contradictory opinion as a basis for constructive, productive conversations. Integrates disagreeing perspectives from the whole company into their perspective and plans. Drives firm-wide momentum for change.

Informal Leadership

Encouraging participation and discussions and being a helpful team member is important for supporting the culture of innovation at Secure Group.

Even if you are not a manager, you are still expected to support your colleagues. Only those professionals who are able to make important decisions and take ownership of them, start impactful discussions across teams and departments, and are encouraging mentors will progress through this IC category.

Levels Chart
IC Path	Description	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4	Level 5	Level 6
Informal Leadership	Decision making	Understands the impact of biases on decision making. Understands accountability.	Strives to be objective and reflects on their own biases when making decisions.	Holds themselves accountable for decision and outcomes. Raises awareness for how biases impact decisions and ensures accountability is practiced within their team. Demonstrates these behaviors themselves.	Takes ownership of decisions made in their team by helping their teammates make clear decisions in alignment with organizational goals, backing decisions made, and taking responsibility for their success.	Takes ownership of decisions made across different teams by helping them make clear decisions in alignment with organizational goals, backing decisions made, and taking responsibility for their success. Raises awareness for how biases impact decisions and ensures accountability is practiced throughout those teams. Demonstrates these behaviors themselves.	Takes ownership of decisions made in the organization by helping colleagues make clear decisions in alignment with organizational goals, backing decisions made, and taking responsibility for their success. Raises awareness for how biases impact decisions and ensures accountability is practiced throughout the organization. Demonstrates these behaviors themselves.
	Facilitation	Not applicable at this level	Facilitates discussions within their team, ensuring that everyone has an opportunity to share their opinion and be heard. Encourages quiet participants and ensures no one person dominates the conversation.	Conducts discussions within their team, facilitates discussions within different teams, ensuring that everyone has an opportunity to share their opinion and be heard and that discussion outcomes tie to goals. Encourages quiet participants and ensures no one person dominates the conversation.	Facilitates discussions within the team, ensuring that everyone has an opportunity to share their opinion and be heard and that discussion outcomes tie to goals. Ensures relevant parties are included in discussions. Guides discussions toward decisions, clarifies and gets buy-in.	Facilitates discussions across different teams, ensuring that everyone has an opportunity to share their opinion and be heard and that discussion outcomes tie to goals. Ensures relevant parties are included in discussions. Guides discussions toward decisions, clarifies and gets buy-in.	Facilitates organization-wide discussions, ensuring that everyone has an opportunity to share their opinion and be heard, and that discussion outcomes tie to goals.
	Advisement	Seeks out guidance and advisement to grow their own experience.	Seeks out guidance to grow their own experience. Sometimes advises their teammates in an open, respectful, flexible, empathetic manner.	Mentors their teammates in an open, respectful, flexible, empathetic manner. Seeks out mentoring opportunities specifically to create team redundancy and backfill ability.	Mentors their teammates in an open, respectful, flexible, empathetic manner. Seeks out mentoring opportunities specifically to create team redundancy and backfill ability. Mentors members of other teams as needed.	Mentors across teams in an open, respectful, flexible, empathetic manner. Fosters a culture of mentoring across teams by seeking out mentoring opportunities for themselves and others, and supports others in their growth as mentors.	Mentors across the organization in an open, respectful, flexible, empathetic manner. Fosters an organizational culture of mentoring by seeking out mentoring opportunities for themselves and others, and supports others in their growth as mentors.

Strategy Involvement

Understanding how our company plans and makes decisions is essential for employees who want to be involved at a higher level in Secure Group. The Strategy Involvement path tracks how able they are to follow the strategy of the company and to promote it across teams and departments. The higher the level an employee is, the more they have an impact in setting the strategic direction of the company.

Levels Chart
IC Path	Description	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4	Level 5	Level 6
Strategy Involvement (Balanced ScoreCard)	Driving strategic alignment	Contributes to conversations based on organizational strategy and principles with their teammates when appropriate.	Initiates conversations based on organizational strategy and principles with their teammates when appropriate. Oriented towards goals and works towards their department's goals.	Conducts conversations based on organizational strategy and principles with their teammates when appropriate to ensure department alignment and cross-department alignment. Strongly oriented towards goals and ensures their department is continuously working towards their shared goals.	Fosters a culture within their department of having conversations based on organizational strategy and principles to create alignment. Strongly oriented towards goals and ensures their department is continuously working towards their shared goals.	Fosters a culture across several department of having conversations based on organizational strategy and principles to create alignment. Strongly oriented towards goals and ensures several department's are continuously working towards their goals.	Fosters a culture across the organization of having conversations based on organizational strategy and principles to create alignment. Ensures goals are understood and continuously worked towards across the organization.
	Secure Group Knowledge	Has a basic understanding of their department's domain and SG strategic plan, industry, and market space. Has a basic understanding of adjacent department's business domains.	Has a complete understanding of their department's domain, and how it contributes to the overall organization's strategy. Strong knowledge of adjacent department's business domains.	Has a thorough understanding of their department's domain, how it's built in the strategic map and how it contributes to overall business strategy. Has complete understanding of adjacent department's business domains.	Has a thorough understanding of their department's domain, strategy, and how it's built into strategic map. Has a thorough understanding of adjacent department's strategies, how they map to their department and interaction points, and how this is built into strategic maps.	Has a thorough understanding of several department's domains, and how they contribute to the overall organizational strategy through their strategic maps.	Has a thorough understanding of the entire business, organizational strategy (strategic maps), including all department's domains, and how they contribute to overall strategy.
	Strategic work	Is aware of the organization's strategy.	Understands the organization's strategy and how it's related to his/her daily work.	Has a thorough understanding regarding the organization's strategy. Usually involved in discussions about the implications for their department. Contributes effectively to the business' goals and/оr initiatives.	Collaborates and decides on their department's work based on organization's strategy, together with their teammates and senior employees. Sometimes involved in work on organizational strategy.	Usually involved in strategic organizational decisions and plans. Leads cross-department strategic efforts, influencing decisions to achieve cross-department alignment on major goals. It's directly responsible for achieving one or more business' goals.	Leads strategic organizational decisions and plans. Consistently works at a strategic level, influencing decisions to achieve organizational alignment on major goals. Acts as a spokesperson for Secure Group Strategic Plan and has a thorough holistic understanding of the business.
	Product Roadmap	Is aware of the product roadmap.	Understands the product's roadmap, the business implications and it's involved in discussions within the department.	Understands the organization's product strategy. Constantly involved in discussions about the implications for their department.	Collaborates and decides on their department's work based on the organization's product strategy, together with their teammates and senior employees. Thorough understanding of the market space.	Usually involved in decisions on your department based on the product and plans on an organizational level. Leads cross-department strategic efforts, influencing decisions to achieve cross-department alignment on major goals.	Leads strategic organizational decisions and plans based on the product strategy. Consistently works at a strategic level, influencing decisions to achieve organizational alignment on major goals.

Individual Contributors Levels - Software Engineering

Software is at the heart of Secure Group and our software engineers are the innovators who help to push the industry forward. Apart from the standard Individual Contributor Paths, they are also evaluated based on additional technical criteria, outlined in the Software Engineering Complexity path.

The criteria involve competencies like writing, testing, and debugging code, as well as promoting best practices in their own work and across teams on matters like monitoring, architecture, and security.

Soft. Eng. Levels Chart
IC Path	Description	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4	Level 5	Level 6
Software Engineering Complexity	Writing Code	Writes code with testability, readability, edge cases, and errors in mind.	Consistently writes functions that are easily testable, easily understood by other developers, and accounts for edge cases and errors. Uses document comments effectively.	Consistently writes production-ready code that is easily testable, easily understood by other developers, and accounts for edge cases and errors. Understands when it is appropriate to leave comments and focus on self-documenting code.	Consistently writes production-ready code that is easily testable, easily understood by other developers, and accounts for edge cases and errors. Understands when it is appropriate to leave comments and focus on self-documenting code.	Consistently writes production-ready code that is easily testable, easily understood by other developers, and accounts for edge cases and errors. Understands when it is appropriate to leave comments and focus on self-documenting code.	Consistently writes production-ready code that is easily testable, easily understood by other developers, and accounts for edge cases and errors. Understands when it is appropriate to leave comments and focus on self-documenting code.
	Testing	Knows the testing pyramid. Writes unit tests, sometimes with help from more senior engineers.	Understands the testing approach of several teams, and uses quality metrics to identify gaps. Works with those teams to recommend solutions that are in accordance with accepted testing frameworks and the testing pyramid. Influences organization-wide testing strategy.	Understands organizational testing approach, and uses quality metrics to identify gaps. Works with all teams to recommend solutions that are in accordance with accepted testing frameworks and the testing pyramid. Drives organization-wide testing strategy.	Understands organizational testing approach, and uses quality metrics to identify gaps. Works with all teams to recommend solutions that are in accordance with accepted testing frameworks and the testing pyramid. Drives organization-wide testing strategy.	Understands organizational testing approach, and uses quality metrics to identify gaps. Works with all teams to recommend solutions that are in accordance with accepted testing frameworks and the testing pyramid. Drives organization-wide testing strategy.	Understands organizational testing approach, and uses quality metrics to identify gaps. Works with all teams to recommend solutions that are in accordance with accepted testing frameworks and the testing pyramid. Drives organization-wide testing strategy.
	Debugging	Uses a systematic approach to debug issues.	Proficient at using systematic debugging to diagnose all issues within the scope of their domain.	Leads incident response across the engineering organization as needed. Uses systematic debugging to diagnose issues across the organization.	Leads incident response across the engineering organization as needed. Uses systematic debugging to diagnose issues across the organization.	Leads incident response across the engineering organization as needed. Uses systematic debugging to diagnose issues across the organization.	Leads incident response across the engineering organization as needed. Uses systematic debugging to diagnose issues across the organization.
	Monitoring (Web Dev)	Is aware of the organization's monitoring philosophy and the operational data for their team’s domain.	Is aware of the organization's monitoring philosophy and the operational data for their team’s domain.	Is aware of the organization's monitoring philosophy. Helps tune and change the monitoring on their team accordingly. Is aware of the operational data for their team’s domain and uses it as a basis for suggesting stability and performance improvements.	Drives monitoring work on their team based on the organization's monitoring philosophy. Is aware of the operational data for their team’s domain and uses it as a basis for driving changes to the team's services to achieve stability and performance improvements.	Fosters a culture of observability across several teams and helps them to use operational data to improve stability and performance of their domains.	Fosters a culture of observability across the engineering organization. Helps teams across the engineering organization use operational data to improve stability and performance of their domains.
	Task Understanding	Understands their team's domain at a high level and can gather sufficient context to work productively within it. Has expertise in a portion of their team's domain.	Has expertise in their team's domain, including the breadth of services, how they interact, and data flows between systems. Understands adjacent domains as they affect their team.	Has expertise in the organization's architecture, including all domains, their bounded contexts, and how they interact with each other, and data flows between systems.	Has expertise in the organization's architecture, including all domains, their bounded contexts, and how they interact with each other, and data flows between systems.	Has expertise in the organization's architecture, including all domains, their bounded contexts, and how they interact with each other, and data flows between systems.	Has expertise in the organization's architecture, including all domains, their bounded contexts, and how they interact with each other, and data flows between systems.
	Software Architecture	Is aware of overall service architecture. Designs basic functions with an awareness of overall service architecture, avoiding duplication across codebases and interface-breaking changes.	Architects services and systems using well accepted design patterns to allow for iterative, autonomous development and future scaling. Anticipates future use cases and makes design decisions that minimize the cost of future changes.	Works across teams to foster a culture of architecture that allows for iterative, autonomous development and future scaling. Guides several teams in anticipation of future use cases and helps them make design decisions that minimize the cost of future changes.	Works across teams to foster a culture of architecture that allows for iterative, autonomous development and future scaling. Guides several teams in anticipation of future use cases and helps them make design decisions that minimize the cost of future changes.	Works across teams to foster a culture of architecture that allows for iterative, autonomous development and future scaling. Guides several teams in anticipation of future use cases and helps them make design decisions that minimize the cost of future changes.	Works across the organization to foster a culture of architecture that allows for iterative, autonomous development and future scaling. Guides teams in the organization in anticipation of future use cases and helps them make design decisions that minimize the cost of future changes.
	Security	Understands the importance of security. Utilizes this knowledge to ask more senior engineers for help on making decisions that may have security implications.	Approaches all engineering work with a security lens. Actively looks for security vulnerabilities both in the code and when providing peer reviews.	Approaches all engineering work with a security lens. Actively looks for security vulnerabilities both in the code and when providing peer reviews. Fosters a security first mindset within their own team, and leads by example.	Actively works with the security team, as well as their own team, to refine their team's approach to security based on the organization's security strategy. Fosters a security first mindset within their own team, and leads by example.	Actively works with the security team, as well as their own team, to refine their team's approach to security based on the organization's security strategy. Fosters a security first mindset within their own team, and leads by example.	Actively works with the security team to set and refine organization wide security strategy. Fosters a security first mindset across the organization. Can recognize obscure security threats that go unnoticed to others.

Individual Contributors Steps

As we mentioned, the Individual Contributor grid consists of Levels (1 to 6), and each Level is made of 4 Steps. The Steps are separated into Ownership, which defines the current contribution of an employee in their role, and Initiative, which outlines what their intentions and goals should be, at their particular level.

IC Path	Step 1	Step 2	Step 3	Step 4
Level 1	Ownership: Takes ownership of routine tasks by making an effort to work independently on them.	Ownership: Takes ownership by acting on tasks and caring about the outcome.	Ownership: Takes ownership for the impact of his/her results in the team's performance when executing tasks.	Ownership: Takes ownership for the impact of his/her results in the organization's performance when executing tasks.
	Initiative: Demonstrates initiative by being accountable for the execution of his/her tasks.	Initiative: Demonstrates an effort to ensure positive results when executing his/her tasks.	Initiative: Demonstrates initiative by asking questions, making correlations, and learning more about the tasks/projects of the department/team in order to ensure alignment.	Initiative: Demonstrates initiative by asking targeted and relevant questions about the organization's projects and expected outcomes. Makes correlations to his/her daily work in order to bring positive results.
Level 2	Ownership: Takes ownership of routine tasks and constantly tries to improve his/her performance.	Ownership: Takes ownership of all tasks to ensure a positive outcome.	Ownership: He/she is accountable for the impact of his/her results on the team's performance.	Ownership: He/she is accountable for the impact of his/her results in the organization's performance.
	Initiative: Demonstrates initiative to grow by searching for improvement opportunities for the execution of his/her tasks.	Initiative: Demonstrates initiative to grow by focusing on how to grow his/her skills and competencies	Initiative: Demonstrates initiative by finding inner motivation in contributing to becoming a high-performance team	Initiative: Demonstrates initiative by showing full understanding of his/her impact on the organization's performance and striving to always deliver higher results.
Level 3	Ownership: Takes ownership by showing competency and eagerness to individually own pieces of larger projects in his/her area completely.	Ownership: Takes ownership by showing competency and eagerness to fully own projects and their results with the guidance of superiors.	Ownership: Takes ownership by showing competency and eagerness to fully own projects that affect the team's performance, with decreasing guidance.	Ownership: Takes ownership by leading the adoption of new systems/tools/methodologies and/or technologies that impact the organization's projects.
	Initiative: Demonstrates initiative by finding inner motivation in becoming an expert in his/her tasks.	Initiative: Demonstrates initiative to grow by constantly developing his/her skills and knowledge to deliver superior results.	Initiative: Demonstrates initiative by approaching the team's performance as a vital part of his/her duties.	Initiative: Demonstrates initiatives through leading relevant organizational improvements.
Level 4	Ownership: Takes ownership by showing competency and eagerness to work independently and to own projects entirely, both in his/her area and cross-functionally.	Ownership: Takes ownership by showing effective accountability on cross-functionally project's results.	Ownership: Takes ownership by mapping improvements that would benefit the team's projects performance and communicating on it.	Ownership: Takes ownership by mapping improvements that would benefit the organization's projects performance and communicating on it.
	Initiative: Demonstrates initiative to grow by searching for more complex development opportunities outside of his/her comfort zone and project-related.	Initiative: Demonstrates initiative to grow by monitoring skills and knowledge gaps that affect his/her team's projects' results.	Initiative: Demonstrates initiative to grow by searching for complex development opportunities that are related to cross-department's business functions	Initiative: Demonstrates initiative to grow by searching for complex development opportunities that are related to SG industry and business structure.
Level 5	Ownership: Takes ownership by showing competency and eagernes to conceive and own projects entirely, both in their area and cross-functionally. Identifies scopes and work stages to transform them into well-defined milestones for projects or initiatives.	Ownership: Takes ownership by researching and leading the adoption of new approaches and technologies to scale his/her results.	Ownership: Takes ownership by walking the talk, communicating its importance, and holding the teams accountable as well	Ownership: Takes ownership by communicating accountability at an organizational level, ensuring his/her projects are constantly impacting positively SG results.
	Initiative: Demonstrates initiative to grow by bringing and communicating relevant knowledge from external sources to SG and applying on his/her tasks	Initiative: Demonstrates initiative to grow by constantly applying relevant knowledge from external sources to SG and applying on his/her tasks constantly upscaling his/her results	Initiative: Demonstrates initiative to grow by constantly applying relevant knowledge from external sources to SG and spreading across different departments to ensure everyone's success.	Initiative: Demonstrates initiative to grow by constantly applying relevant knowledge from external sources to SG and acting like a spokesperson for the company development at all levels.
Level 6	Ownership: Takes ownership by driving complex projects on which multiple teams depend on.	Ownership: Takes ownership by routinely and consistently pushing forward the results of multiple teams/areas within the company.	Ownership: Takes ownership by driving the conversation about employee ownership, driving team-wide consensus to develop and adopt orientation.	Ownership: Takes ownership by leading the company development in all areas.
	Initiative: Demonstrates initiative to grow by proposing and successfully conducting SG organizational projects and developing relevant skills and knowledge for the company.	Initiative: Demonstrates initiative to grow by mitigating risks that would affect the company's overall results.	Initiative: Demonstrates initiative to grow by serving as a recognized authority to SG subjects within different teams.	Initiative: Demonstrates initiative to grow by focusing on growing industry-related skills and knowledge and leading SG development globally.