Tldr to be promoted to senior software engineer | by Kanika Modi

Senior software engineers play a critical role in determining the direction of the product and actively participate in the development of key features for the business. This blog is intended to serve as a resource for aspiring software engineers who want to succeed in software engineering and progress to the level of seasoned software engineers.

Take the necessary initiative for your development and career progression through 1: 1 interviews and career conversations with your manager and other senior SDEs.
Document career goals in detail, highlighting key aspects such as complexity / ambiguity and overall growth of the current function beyond project delivery.

Successfully launch software that has an impact on a large part of a product or business.
Ideate with clients, stakeholders, peers and define issues and solution roadmap.
Lead the successful design, implementation and delivery of large-scale mission-critical software.

Responsibilities specific to optimizing the use of equipment for team services.
Review team software metrics / alarms and suggest tools to aid in service maintenance.
Perform regular operational readiness audits of team systems. Offer constructive solutions to recurring problems by tackling the root causes.

Have a thorough understanding of the team’s work and try to regularly improve consistency and integration between your software and related applications.
Propose and develop decoupling / reusable platform components. Take the initiative to find and resolve ambiguous problems, architectural flaws or areas of innovation.
Make improvements to development and testing practices. Make sure your designs are scalable and extensible.

Ment and coach new engineers on how your team’s software is built, runs, is secure, and fits into a bigger picture.
Participate and facilitate brainstorming and knowledge sharing sessions.
Actively participate in the recruitment process. Participate in the recruitment and interviews of new team members.
Recognize conflicting points of view and engage in constructive dialogue to resolve them.

Focus on learning and understanding new design patterns, software systems that can be used to improve software and team operations.
Become a subject matter expert in 2-3 key areas of the software used by the team.
Actively participate in code reviews, design discussions, and team planning.

Demonstrate technical influence on 1 or 2 teams, either through a collaborative software effort or by applying software engineering best practices to increase their productivity and efficiency.
Make informed contributions to team priorities and technical trade-off considerations to influence business / enterprise strategy.