This project is currently in BETA, it's ready to use, but wording and examples may still change.

Operations Progression

Mid to Senior 1

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 Mid to Senior 1 are outlined below. Before reviewing them, it is helpful to review how to use these competencies.

Area Competency
Technical

Support systems and performs technical processes, e.g.

  • Has advanced knowledge and at least one area of expertise across business critical systems
  • Defines and updates specific support processes for use by the rest of the team
Technical

Perform the technical processes for Ops, e.g.

  • Viewed as having deep knowledge and expertise in performing technical processes
  • Develop processes for others to follow
Communication

Handling requests from users, e.g.

  • Regularly picks up user requests that are unfamiliar or have no clear process, and does the work needed to help the user (or escalates to the people who can)
Communication

Incident Management, e.g.

  • Recognises and performs the key tasks that need to happen during an incident, comfortable organising reviews and writing reports, and seeks and suggests improvements
Communication

Documenting new information, e.g.

  • clearly laid out, step by step, gets feedback before releasing it
  • Clear communication
Delivery

Ownership of tasks & prioritisation, e.g.

  • Identifies and owns more complicated tasks and processes, is able to take them through to completion, seeking all necessary guidance, without heavy involvement from leadership and is responsible for training the team in them
  • Regularly collaborates with technical and business stakeholders
Delivery

Helps other teams onboard new services with Operations, e.g.

  • Helps onboard new services and reviews documentation, suggests improvements and works with teams to define better processes and procedures for the team
Leadership

Helps the team learn and grow, e.g.

  • Regularly goes out of their way to learn new skills and processes, and encourages team to learn and participate in their own knowledge sharing
Leadership

Ownership of personal development, e.g.

  • Push their own learning into areas they are not necessarily familiar with, considered within team to be a subject matter expert in one or more areas within their job role
Leadership

Responds to change, e.g.

  • Actively promotes and has input into change
  • Supports the team in adapting to changes as they happen
Leadership

Improves and promotes team visibility between departments, e.g.

  • Promoting Operations at internal tech events
Leadership

Team values, e.g.

  • Helps encourage team to follow team values, uses their standing in the team to make a positive difference