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8.3. How To Progress Towards Senior

So you've been working as a software engineer for a bit now, and you’re starting to think about how to level up your career. Reaching the senior engineer level isn’t about waiting around for someone to notice you—it’s about being intentional, demonstrating growth, and making your impact visible.

Have a 1:1 with your Manager​

Your manager isn’t the one who gives you a promotion. What they do is advocate for you—if you give them the evidence to justify it.

Start by booking a dedicated 1:1 to talk about your career progression. Don’t be vague—say clearly that your goal is to become a senior engineer, and you want to understand what’s required to get there.

Most companies have a career framework or engineering rubric that defines what’s expected at each level—junior, mid-level, senior, etc. Ask your manager to go through it with you.

  • Have them rate where you currently stand for each of the competencies (e.g., code quality, communication, leadership, system design, ownership).
  • Write these down. This is your starting point.
  • Then ask: What would it take to move up a level in each of these areas?

This turns an abstract goal ("I want to be senior") into a concrete roadmap ("I need to improve system design, take ownership of a cross-team project, and mentor a junior dev").

Set Clear Goals​

Now that you’ve got a roadmap, you need to start closing the gap. Set specific goals aligned with the areas you need to improve.

For example:

  • If you're weak in system design, start shadowing design reviews, reading design docs, and volunteering to write specs.
  • If you lack ownership, ask to lead a small feature end-to-end—including planning, implementation, rollout, and postmortem.
  • If you don’t have mentorship experience, offer to onboard new interns or help junior devs with PR reviews.

Each goal should be:

  • Concrete (e.g., "Lead the migration of X to Y")
  • Visible (others should be able to vouch for it)
  • Impactful (aligned with business or team value)

Track your progress and regularly check in with your manager on how you’re doing. Feedback is how you’ll course-correct.

Ideally set a timeline on each goal or aim to complete and complete a goal each quarter or performance review cycle.

Build a Portfolio of Impact​

Start collecting examples of your contributions—especially ones that demonstrate the senior-level rubric competencies.

Include things like:

  • Big features you led
  • Incidents you resolved
  • Design docs you authored
  • Juniors you mentored
  • Tech debt you cleaned up

This is what you’ll use to advocate for yourself when it’s time for a promotion discussion.

Understand What "Senior" Really Means​

Being a senior engineer is not just about being a great coder.

It’s about:

  • Autonomy: You can take a problem and deliver a solution with minimal guidance.
  • Communication: You make sure others understand your ideas and decisions, not just your teammates but also stakeholders.
  • Impact: It's not about whether you can write good code, it's about whether you bring value or impact to the team and the company.
  • Leadership: You help shape the direction of your team, mentor others, and drive initiatives forward. You help others succeed, not just yourself. Is your team better because you’re on it?

You don’t need a title to start acting like a senior. In fact, the best way to get the title is to start acting like it first.

No one is going to promote you unless you're already demonstrating senior-level behavior. So start now.