10 Years of Engineering Ladders

The article opens with a clear point: publishing a public engineering ladder gave countless companies a concrete starting point for career progression, and that openness still drives the conversation a decade later. By separating individual contributor and management tracks and attaching both a spreadsheet and a narrative explanation, the ladder became a reusable template that many teams have adapted.

The author describes the original Rent the Runway ladder in detail, noting how it combined multiple inspirations, contributions from tech leads, and careful wording to make expectations measurable. Readers get a sense of the concrete criteria used at each level, from "large systems" to "high impact" work, and see why that level of granularity matters when hiring, promoting, or planning team growth.

Practical advice follows: keep HR out of the definition work, make the ladder more prescriptive than a horoscope, and pair the spreadsheet with long-form text to surface hidden assumptions. The piece warns against checklist-style ladders that guarantee promotion, urging honesty about which job families need full ladders and emphasizing early-career levels to retain junior talent.

Finally, the author reflects on how ladders are now commonplace but still essential for transparent, equitable organizations. Even as flat structures and AI tools gain attention, a well-crafted ladder remains a powerful tool for aligning expectations, guiding development, and preventing the tyranny of structurelessness.