We don’t have separate titles to distinguish between frontend, Backend, or Devops roles, but rather have laid out a set of definitions that describe what we expect from people at each stage. We also wanted to ensure that there was a sense of ownership on behalf of the team, so they’ve been involved from the outset in providing feedback and Edits.

We wanted to make ladder progress more measurable and unique to Glossier. We have mapped each value to a skill and concluded each job description with a grid that specifies the behaviour we’re looking for in each of these skills.

At Glossier, we’ve named our ‘ technical path’and ‘ people path ’, terms that we feel are more inclusive for our engineering, data, Ux, and design teams. Choosing a technical or people path is a point that everyone on our Tech team will reach at some point in their career. There is no one path through the framework, it’s up to our team members and managers to navigate together.

Like a typical Architect track, these are primarily technical roles that don’t generally involve people leadership. As individuals move up, they’ll assume increasing levels of technical leadership and responsibility. As thought leaders, they’re looking longterm and getting the team to share their vision. Most of the Engineering and Data teams will fit into these roles.

Like a typical Management track, these roles represent the people leadership and management paths within the Engineering and Data team. While of course we still expect technical proficiency from everyone in these roles, these team members are more focused on hiring, team organization, and helping people up the ladder than those in a strictly Technical path.

It's difficult to manage ambitions without a clear hierarchy in place. Without clear definitions of a job description and responsibilities at the next level, promotions boil down to years of service. Without clear definitions of a job description and responsibilities at the next level, promotions boil down to years of service. We want the ladder to serve as a recruiting and retention tool. We want it to foster the growth of a talented team, says Steve Mccartney, Co-Founder

We're really excited to officially launch this and get some momentum behind it. The ladder and skill Matrices added a much appreciated additional structure. The increase in transparency in terms of what it takes to advance, and where to advance, has also been great for managers and their direct reports. Going forward, we'll continue to improve and refine the ladder as Glossier grows. When not doing all things Cto, Bryan is loving life with his wife, daughter, and two dogs in Nyc.