The 7 Levels of Software Engineering

SUMMARY

Bgo, a former NASA and Fortune 500 developer, outlines the seven progressive levels of a software engineering career, from beginner to founder, emphasizing skills, trade-offs, and paths to greater autonomy and impact.

STATEMENTS

A software engineering career consists of seven distinct levels that determine compensation, workload, and control over one's destiny, each requiring unique skills and sacrifices.
At Level 1 (Student/Beginner), individuals spend 0-12 months learning basics with minimal pay (0-$10,000), often feeling overwhelmed by tutorials and self-doubt.
Level 2 (Intern) involves 0-1 years of real-world experience in complex codebases, earning $40,000-$110,000, while trading comfort for growth through constant feedback and ego challenges.
As a Level 3 Junior Developer (Ticket Taker), engineers with 0-2 years experience earn $80,000-$140,000 by implementing clear instructions, but feel anxious about replaceability and layoffs.
Level 4 Mid-Level (Independent Builder) spans 2-5 years with $120,000-$200,000 compensation, allowing ownership of features from vague requirements to production, yet risking repetitive work.
Senior engineers at Level 5 (System Architect) have 5-10 years experience, earning $160,000-$280,000, focusing on judgment, system design, and risk reduction rather than just coding output.
Level 6 Staff/Principal (Multiplier) requires 8-15 years, pays $200,000-$400,000+, and shifts to enabling teams through influence, standards, and alignment, often leading to "golden handcuffs."
At Level 7 (Founder/Owner), timelines vary with uncapped earnings from losses to millions, emphasizing building outcomes, leading people, and leveraging sales for true control and upside.

IDEAS

Career progression in software engineering isn't linear; each level demands a paradigm shift from following instructions to creating direction and owning outcomes.
Beginners trade speed for growth by shipping imperfect projects, breaking the cycle of endless tutorials that foster dependency.
Interns must embrace vulnerability by asking endless questions to build coachability, turning confusion into reliability amid chaotic real-world codebases.
Junior developers evolve by questioning tickets deeply—defining success, edge cases, and impacts—to close problems independently, escaping replaceability.
Mid-level engineers gain confidence owning vague features end-to-end, but face the trap of comfortable repetition that erodes meaning without broader vision.
Senior roles prioritize judgment over code volume, anticipating failures and designing for scale, where decisions today prevent million-dollar disasters tomorrow.
Staff engineers multiply impact by killing bad ideas early and setting invisible standards, feeling heavier responsibility despite shipping less tangible work.
Founders unlock uncapped potential by combining technical skills with sales and distribution, transforming code into leverage without needing permission.
AI isn't a job threat but a directed workforce for higher levels, amplifying engineers who focus on compounding skills like systems thinking.
Relationship capital and tailored strengths per level are crucial; technical prowess alone doesn't guarantee success in leadership or entrepreneurship.

INSIGHTS

True career advancement hinges on evolving from executor to enabler, where influence and judgment eclipse raw coding ability in creating lasting value.
Each level's trade-off reveals a hidden cost: early discomfort builds resilience, but higher stability often masks a loss of autonomy and purpose.
Replaceability fades when engineers shift from ticket fulfillment to problem closure, demanding curiosity about "why" over mere "how" implementation.
Senior judgment isn't about more work but foresight—evaluating consequences ensures systems endure, turning potential crises into preventive wisdom.
The "golden handcuffs" of high-level engineering stem from building engines without owning the vehicle, underscoring the need for entrepreneurial skills to claim full leverage.
Software engineers shape humanity's future by directing technology's trajectory, making personal growth in skills and networks essential for broader societal impact.

QUOTES

"Your career as a software engineer is measurable. And the level that you are at right now pretty much determines everything about your life."
"Senior isn't about more code. Senior is all about judgment."
"You stop being measured by what you build and you start being measured by what you enable."
"A paycheck rewards output and ownership rewards leverage."
"We as software engineers are the next bastion of humanity - how we approach the upcoming advancements in technology will determine the course of humanity for the next few centuries."

HABITS

Dedicate focused time to one project, pushing through discomfort to ship it end-to-end, avoiding tutorial overload.
Ask probing questions daily in meetings or Slack, such as defining success metrics and edge cases, to build coachability.
Maintain a calm triage mindset during incidents, tracing root causes before quick fixes to prevent recurrence.
Review business metrics like revenue and retention regularly, not just code commits, to align technical work with outcomes.
Document processes into SOPs after solving pains, enabling delegation and scaling personal leverage.

FACTS

U.S. junior developers earn $80,000-$140,000 annually, but many feel non-essential amid AI advancements and layoffs.
Mid-level engineers in the U.S. command $120,000-$200,000 base pay, yet often question if job-hopping is the only path to more freedom.
Senior software engineers earn $160,000-$280,000 in the U.S., with decisions potentially costing millions if mishandled six months later.
Staff engineers can reach total compensation near $1 million in big tech, but face "golden handcuffs" from high pay without full ownership.
Software engineers' approach to technology could influence humanity's trajectory for centuries, positioning them as a pivotal force in innovation.

REFERENCES

Code to CEO: A startup accelerator program for mid-to-senior engineers to build client businesses and achieve freedom.
Free 55-page guide on finding, validating, and scaling business ideas for developers dreaming of startups.
Bgo's YouTube channel (@bgoraw) for daily videos on building a 10-figure business strategy.

HOW TO APPLY

Identify your current level by assessing experience, pay, and daily tasks; if overwhelmed by tutorials, you're likely at Level 1 and need to ship one project.
At intern stage, commit to asking at least five clarifying questions per task daily to accelerate coachability and reliability.
As a junior, transform ticket work by always querying success definitions, impacts, and edge cases before coding to evolve into a problem-closer.
In mid-level, own vague features by creating concise plans, debugging calmly, and monitoring post-shipment to build end-to-end confidence.
For seniors aiming higher, focus on alignment by writing RFCs that guide multiple teams and mentoring juniors to multiply your influence.

ONE-SENTENCE TAKEAWAY

Elevate your engineering career by mastering level-specific shifts from execution to ownership for true freedom and impact.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Prioritize compounding skills like judgment and communication over fleeting frameworks to future-proof your trajectory.
Build relationship capital early through mentors and networks, as opportunities rarely arise in isolation.
Learn sales and distribution alongside coding to bypass corporate ladders and claim entrepreneurial leverage.
Question repetitive comfort at mid-level by exploring business ideas, avoiding 20-year stagnation in feature work.
Direct AI as a tool for amplification, not fear, to enhance outcomes at every level without replacement anxiety.

MEMO

In the high-stakes world of software engineering, Bgo—a former NASA engineer who ditched corporate security for a seven-figure firm—maps out a career ladder with seven rungs, each a gateway to more pay, autonomy, and influence. Far from the glamorous portrayals in films, the ascent begins in the trenches: late-night tutorial marathons for beginners, where 19 browser tabs and endless errors test resolve. Bgo stresses that knowing your level isn't just self-assessment; it's a roadmap to escape the traps that ensnare most coders, from junior anxiety over AI threats to the "golden handcuffs" binding high-earners who build empires but never own them.

The early levels demand humility and grit. Interns plunge into messy, multi-author codebases that shatter academic illusions, earning modest stipends while their egos take daily hits. Juniors, toiling on Jira tickets for $80,000 to $140,000 a year, implement fixes but sense their replaceability, a fear amplified by layoffs and automation. Bgo recounts his own junior days as "ticket-taking mode," urging a pivot: probe deeper into problems' roots, edges, and impacts to become indispensable problem-closers rather than mere implementers.

Mid-level engineers, with two to five years under their belts and salaries climbing to $200,000, finally own features from vague briefs to live production. Yet comfort breeds complacency; the work turns repetitive, meaning fades, and questions linger about job-hopping as the ceiling. Seniors, earning up to $280,000 after five to ten years, embody judgment over output—designing scalable systems, triaging crises, and foreseeing risks that could cost millions. Their days involve cool-headed root-cause analysis during outages, shifting evaluation from lines of code to long-term consequences.

Beyond seniors, the rarefied air of staff and principal roles—paying $200,000 to $400,000 or more—transforms engineers into multipliers. Here, influence trumps individual contributions: crafting requests for comments that align teams, mentoring seniors, and nixing flawed ideas before they balloon. Bgo notes the irony—less visible shipping, more invisible weight—often leading to lucrative but confining handcuffs. The pinnacle, Level 7, is founder territory: uncapped earnings from ventures where technical CEOs solve revenue pains, direct AI workforces, and trade paychecks for control, proving that building and selling unlocks permissionless leverage.

For mid-to-senior engineers yearning for freedom without climbing corporate peaks, Bgo's Code to CEO offers a shortcut: monetizing skills into client businesses yielding $25,000 monthly. He warns that engineers aren't just coders; they're humanity's guardians against tech's double-edged sword. By honing systems thinking, relationships, and level-tailored strengths, they can steer innovations toward flourishing, not peril, rewriting their destinies one shipped project at a time.