Engineering Promotion Packet Example (Staff/Senior Level)

# Promotion Packet: [Your Name] - Senior Engineer → Staff Engineer

## Executive Summary
I am requesting promotion to Staff Engineer effective [Date]. Over the past 18 months, I have consistently operated at the Staff level by:
- Leading the [Project Name] initiative that reduced latency by 40% for 10M users
- Establishing technical direction for the [Team/Org] affecting 8 engineers
- Mentoring 3 engineers to Senior level
- Driving architectural decisions with org-wide impact

## Current Role & Tenure
- **Current Level:** Senior Software Engineer (L5)
- **Time in Role:** 2.5 years
- **Team:** [Team Name]
- **Manager:** [Manager Name]

## Evidence of Staff-Level Impact

### 1. Technical Leadership & Architecture
**Project:** Payment System Redesign
**Duration:** 6 months
**Problem:** Legacy payment system was causing 10% transaction failure rate and couldn't scale beyond 1000 TPS.

**Scope:**
- 50,000 lines of code across 8 services
- 4 teams depended on this system
- $2M annual revenue at risk

**My Role:**
- Authored technical design doc reviewed by 15 engineers
- Led architecture review with Director of Engineering
- Made key technology choices: Event-driven architecture with Kafka, DynamoDB for writes, PostgreSQL for analytics
- Coordinated work across Backend, Platform, and Data teams

**Impact:**
- Reduced transaction failures from 10% → 0.3%
- Increased throughput from 800 TPS → 5000 TPS
- Saved $1.8M in potential payment provider fees
- Created reusable payment abstraction used by 3 other teams

**Evidence:**
- [Link to design doc]
- [Dashboard showing metrics improvement]
- [Slack messages from VP Engineering praising the work]

### 2. Organizational Influence
**Initiative:** Engineering Standards Working Group

**My Contribution:**
- Identified inconsistent API design across 20+ services causing integration issues
- Proposed and led API standards working group with 6 engineers
- Created RFC process adopted org-wide (40+ engineers)
- Published API design guide used by all backend teams

**Impact:**
- New service integration time reduced from 2 weeks → 3 days
- 15 services migrated to new standards in 6 months
- Became the go-to person for API design reviews (conducted 30+ reviews)

**Evidence:**
- [Link to RFC 001: API Standards]
- [Adoption metrics dashboard]
- [Testimonial from Director]

### 3. Mentorship & Leadership
**Direct Mentoring:**
- Sarah Chen (Mid → Senior): Coached through promotion packet, promoted Q2 2025
- James Lee (Junior → Mid): Paired on technical design, promoted Q4 2024
- Alex Kumar (New hire onboarding): Ramped to full productivity in 3 weeks vs 6 week avg

**Indirect Impact:**
- Gave 3 internal tech talks (avg 40 attendees each)
- Started weekly "Code Review Best Practices" sessions
- Created onboarding guide used by all new backend hires

**Evidence:**
- [Testimonials from mentees]
- [Talk recordings]
- [Onboarding guide adoption metrics]

### 4. Cross-Functional Partnership
**Initiative:** Product-Engineering Collaboration

**Context:** PM team frustrated with engineering estimates and unexpected delays.

**My Actions:**
- Proposed joint planning sessions with PM team
- Created technical discovery phase before committing to timelines
- Trained 4 PMs on basic system architecture

**Impact:**
- Delivery predictability improved from 60% → 90%
- PM satisfaction score (internal survey) increased from 3.2 → 4.5 / 5
- 3 PMs specifically mentioned me in quarterly feedback

## Leveling Criteria Met

| Staff Engineer Expectation | Evidence |
|---|---|
| **Scope:** Org-level impact (20+ engineers) | Payment redesign affected 4 teams; API standards affected 40+ engineers |
| **Technical Leadership:** Drive architectural decisions | Led 5 major design reviews; authored 10+ design docs |
| **Complexity:** Ambiguous problems with no clear solution | Payment redesign had multiple possible solutions; I evaluated tradeoffs and drove consensus |
| **Autonomy:** Self-directed with minimal oversight | All initiatives above were self-identified and executed with quarterly check-ins |
| **Mentorship:** Grow other engineers | 3 direct mentees; 2 promoted; Created onboarding content |
| **Communication:** Influence through writing & speaking | 10+ design docs; 3 internal talks; API guide with 500+ views |

## Peer & Manager Feedback

**From Manager (Sarah Johnson):**
> "[Your Name] consistently operates above their level. They identify important problems, propose solutions, build consensus, and deliver impact. They're already functioning as a Staff engineer."

**From Director (Michael Chen):**
> "The payment redesign was critical for our business and [Your Name] executed flawlessly. They navigated technical complexity and organizational politics with maturity beyond their level."

**From Peer (Senior Engineer, Platform Team):**
> "[Your Name]'s API standards work saved our team countless hours. They're the person we go to when we're stuck on architecture decisions."

**From Mentee (Sarah Chen, promoted to Senior):**
> "[Your Name] taught me how to think about design tradeoffs and write better docs. I wouldn't have gotten promoted without their guidance."

## Compensation Expectations
Based on market research and internal compensation bands:
- **Current Compensation:** $170k base + $30k equity
- **Requested Compensation:** $210k base + $50k equity (Staff engineer band: $200k-$230k base)

I am open to discussion on exact numbers but expect compensation to reflect the Staff level.

## Timeline & Next Steps
I am ready for promotion immediately and can take on Staff-level responsibilities:
1. Tech lead for [Upcoming Project]
2. Architecture advisor for [Team Name]
3. Mentorship of 2 Senior engineers

**Requested Decision Date:** [Date - typically 2-4 weeks]

I'm happy to discuss any questions or provide additional evidence. Thank you for considering this request.

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**Supporting Documents:**
- [Appendix A: Design Docs]
- [Appendix B: Impact Metrics Dashboards]
- [Appendix C: Peer Testimonials]
- [Appendix D: Code Samples]