Dropbox: SRE Career Framework

Impact

• I work with my manager to prioritize tasks that add the most value and deliver high-quality results for my customer
• I understand and effectively participate in the core processes of my team (planning, on-call rotations, bug triage, metrics review, etc)

Ownership

• I follow through on my commitments, take responsibility for my work, and deliver my work on time
• I ask questions to clarify expectations
• I own my failures and learn from them

Decision Making

• I escalate to my manager when I get stuck and reflect on ways that I can improve from my mistakes

Agility / Innovation

• I share new ideas and can adapt my work when circumstances change

Personal growth

• I'm open to and act upon feedback from my manager and peers
• I'm gaining self-awareness about my strengths and areas for development
• I have a high standard of excellence for my work

Talent Development

• I am learning to interview and assess candidates to help us build a diverse and talented team. I consistently provide timely, detailed, and evidence-based interview feedback.
• I am able to represent my team’s initiatives and goals to candidates in a compelling way

Collaboration

• I can effectively collaborate to get work done
• I work with my manager to manage conflict with empathy in mind

Organizational Health

• I listen to different perspectives and I remove biases from my words and actions
• I practice the Dropbox Diversity Commitments on a regular basis

Communication

• I write and speak clearly
• I listen to understand others and ask clarifying questions
• I share relevant information on my project including difficult task-level trade-offs that impact the product to my manager and team (including product/business partners).

Systems Fluency

• I understand the basics of OS or networks, or hardware and can quickly debug basic system issues.
• I am learning to understand a typical full stack application (client/load-balancer/frontend/backend/DB) and use the right tools to troubleshoot system issues.
• I automate simple tasks to reduce the toil in operating systems efficiently.
• I identify and suggest improvements to system utilization.

Code Fluency

• I translate ideas into clear code, written to be read as well as executed.
• My code is free of glaring errors - bugs are in edge cases or design, not mainline paths - and is well documented and well tested with appropriate use of manual vs automated tests.
• I’m capable of reading and navigating functions and classes/modules that I didn’t write.

Impact

• I act with urgency and deliver high-quality work that will add the most value
• I work with my manager to direct my focus so my work advances my team's goals
• I prioritize the right things and don't overcomplicate my work. When necessary, I propose appropriate scope adjustments.
• I effectively participate in the core processes of my team, including recommending and implementing process improvements

Ownership

• I follow through on my commitments, take responsibility for my work, and deliver on time
• I proactively identify and advocate for opportunities to improve the current state of projects
• I own my failures and learn from them
• I think a step or two ahead in my work, solve the right problems before they become bigger problems, and problem-solve with my manager when I'm stuck

Decision Making

• I Identify and gather input from others and consider customer needs to make informed and timely decisions

Agility

• I’m open to change and enthusiastic about new initiatives
• I work with my manager to navigate complex and ambiguous situations

Innovation

• I ask questions and contribute to new ideas/approaches
• I experiment with new approaches and share what I learned

Personal Growth

• I proactively ask for feedback from those I work with and identify ways to act upon it
• I have self-awareness about my strengths and areas for development
• I drive discussions with my manager about aspirational goals and seek out opportunities to learn and grow

Talent Development

• I model integrity and a high standard of excellence for my work.
• I help the more junior members of my team, host interns, or am a residency mentor I offer honest feedback that is delivered with empathy to help others learn and grow
• I contribute to interviewing and assessing candidates to help us build a diverse and talented team. I am calibrated and consistently perform high-signal interviews
• I am able to represent my team’s initiatives and goals to candidates in a compelling way

Collaboration

• I can effectively collaborate to get work done
• I work with my manager to manage conflict with empathy and cooperation in mind

Organizational Health

• I contribute to a positive sense of community on the team (e.g. engage in team lunches, team offsites, and other group activities, help with new-hire on-boarding).
• I listen to different perspectives and I cut biases from my words and actions
• I practice the Dropbox Diversity Commitments on a regular basis

Communication

• I write and speak clearly
• I listen to understand others and ask clarifying questions
• I share relevant information on my projects to my manager, team and customers.

Systems Fluency

• I understand OS, networks, or hardware and can debug system issues and identify system bottlenecks.
• I am able to understand and improve the system’s health such as utilization and performance.
• I identify the toil and reduce it with automation for operating systems efficiently.
• I can navigate through a full stack application (client/load-balancer/frontend/backend/DB) and build proficiency on the right tools to dig into the system issues at different levels.

Systems Design

• I begin to understand how systems fail and work with teams to reduce the risks.
• I have a pragmatic understanding of software limitations and how to identify reliability risks.

Code Fluency

• I translate ideas into clear code, written to be read as well as executed.
• My code is free of glaring errors - bugs are in edge cases or design, not mainline paths - and is well documented and well tested with appropriate use of manual vs automated tests.
• I am able to read and navigate through a large code base and effectively debug others’ code.
• I address code tasks with both high throughput and appropriately high quality for the stage of project I am working on.

Impact

• I deliver some of my team’s goals on time and with a high standard of quality
• I understand my customers, the business’s goals and my team’s goals. I ensure my work will have the greatest customer impact
• I can identify when my results aren’t moving the needle for our business/team goals or serving the needs of customers in a meaningful way and work with manager to redirect my focus
• I get work to a simple place by focusing on the heart of the problem and prioritizing the right things

Ownership

• I proactively identify new opportunities and advocate for and implement improvements to the current state of projects
• I take responsibility for my decisions and any failures on my project and take action to prevent them in the future. I embrace and share the learnings from those failures
• When I encounter barriers, I unblock myself and my team by proactively assessing and eliminating the root cause

Decision Making

• I make informed decisions by consulting the right stakeholders and balancing details with the big picture. I execute against the spirit, and not just the letter, of the requirements
• I understand the implications of my decisions and adjust my approach based on the impact and risk in the short and long-term
• I make timely decisions but don’t cut corners that would compromise my customer’s trust

Agility

• I embrace change and adapt quickly to it
• I’m able to navigate ambiguity and remain resilient through ups and downs by staying calm under pressure and taking care of my overall well-being

Innovation

• I ask questions and contribute to new ideas/approaches
• I experiment with new approaches and share what I learned

Strategy

• I work collaboratively with my manager to set realistic and ambitious short- and long-term goals to deliver customer value quickly and break these goals down into smaller projects for my team or myself
• I execute the development roadmap for multi-phase projects, possibly as a project lead

Personal Growth

• I proactively ask for feedback from those I work with and identify ways to act upon it
• I have self-awareness about my strengths and areas for development
• I drive discussions with my manager about aspirational goals and seek out opportunities to learn and grow

Talent Development

• I model integrity and a high standard of excellence for my work. I leverage this to influence and establish best practices
• I support the growth of my teammates by taking into account their skills, backgrounds and working styles
• I solicit and offer honest and constructive feedback that is delivered with empathy to help others learn and grow
• I contribute to interviewing and assessing candidates to help us build a diverse and talented team by conducting more advanced domain-specific and leveling interviews
• I am able to represent my team’s initiatives and goals to candidates in a compelling way

Collaboration

• I build relationships across teams and help get to positive outcomes
• I proactively communicate and coordinate my team’s requirements with other groups and teams in engineering
• I am capable of working with cross-functional stakeholders to identify technical blindspots and clarify ambiguity in their ideas.
• I avoid blame and solve the right problems, disagreeing and committing when necessary

Organizational Health

• I contribute to a positive sense of community on the team (e.g. engage in team lunches, team offsites, and other group activities, help with new-hire on-boarding)
• I listen to different perspectives and I cut biases from my words and actions
• I practice the Dropbox Diversity Commitments on a regular basis
• I champion good virtual first practices that help my team collaborate effectively
• I help shape the Dropbox engineering culture through my involvement with activities outside of my team (e.g. presenting tech talks, participating in Eng RFCs, creating interview questions, planning hackweek)

Communication

• I tailor my message to my audience, presenting it clearly and concisely at the right altitude
• I proactively share information so the right people are informed and aligned
• I foster effective communication across the team and promote inclusive meeting culture

Systems Fluency

• I understand OS or networks, or hardware well and can quickly debug complex issues and identify the major system bottlenecks.
• I fully understand the layers of the system and appropriate tooling for each one and know when to engage a higher level expert when my own knowledge isn’t adequate in one.
• I am able to identify opportunities to improve system’s reliability such as utilization, scalability, efficiency and drive the implementation.
• I mastered the craft of automation for mitigating toil and expert in troubleshooting complex system issues impacting reliability.
• I know how complex distributed systems fail and look for ways to protect the software and system.
• I can navigate through full stack application and build proficiency on the right tools to dig deep into the system issues.

Systems Design

• I am able to decompose reliability problems or business scenarios into solutions composed of multiple software or systems components interacting with each other.
• I proactively identify issues with technical dependencies of my project that are owned by other teams and surface them.
• I can improve the system design and architecture by identifying major areas of risk (failure domains) and prioritize fixes via good judgement on what to let slide versus those that bring the maximum benefits to the company.
• I understand what is toil on a team and work to design systems that require less manual intervention where appropriate. I drive to improve the reliability, operability, and efficiency of at least one impactful system at Dropbox with the team that owns it.

Code Fluency

• I write code that captures the essential nature of the solution and is appropriately flexible, reusable, efficient, and adaptable to changing requirements.
• I ensure high code quality in code reviews.
• I have a strong awareness of the ecosystem of tools and libraries supporting my primary programming language and development environment and a strong grasp of the idioms and patterns of my language. I may be intimately familiar with the open source community surrounding it.

Impact

• I deliver many of my team’s goals on time and with a high standard of quality
• My understanding of the business context and my team’s goals enable me to have the greatest customer impact and allows me to make independent technical decisions in the face of open-ended requirements
• I can identify when my results aren’t moving the needle for our business/team goals or serving the needs of customers in a meaningful way and work with manager to redirect my focus
• I get work to a simple place by focusing on the heart of the problem and prioritizing the right things

Systems Design

• I help drive the process to onboard services in production by meeting the dropbox’s standards to build and operate services efficiently.
• I help define the team’s reliability targets (SLO/SLAs) to meet the appropriate goals for a service.
• I can prioritize fixing major system reliability issues and with appropriate levels of failure for the next phases of the company vs daily problems.
• I help drive the team to define the risk matrix for a service.
• I analyze patterns in incidents and identify improvements needed in my systems in how we operate and design software.
• I am able to create coherent designs with multiple components interacting across API or system boundaries; bugs do not creep in at the boundaries between components due to mismatches in expectations of what is technically feasible.
• I am capable of rolling out a component or major feature (and deprecating an existing system or feature) reliably - including appropriate monitoring, paging, etc are in place, and that failure domains are understood and characterized appropriately before large scale rollout. For early stage products, I am able to roll out with an eye toward achieving learning goals untainted by poor quality.
• I design clear success metrics and achieve those metrics consistently post-launch through the lifetime of the system. For early stage products, those success metrics may be oriented around learning goals rather than usage goals, given the inherent unpredictability of achieving product/market fit

Ownership

• I proactively identify new opportunities and advocate for and implement improvements to the current state of projects — potentially having broader business impact across teams or products
• I take responsibility for my decisions, and failures on my project and take action to prevent them in the future. I embrace and share the learnings from those failures
• When I encounter barriers, I unblock myself and my team by proactively assessing and eliminating the root cause, and focusing on the solutions

Decision Making

• I make informed decisions by consulting the right stakeholders and balancing details with the big picture
• I understand the implications of my decisions and adjust my approach based on the impact and risk (e.g. choosing a more iterative approach based on the degree of uncertainty with respect to product fit, while maintaining a view of the long term arc needed to accomplish business goals)
• I leverage insights about customers to inform decisions, balancing value for the customer with other business goals
• I make timely decisions but don’t cut corners that would compromise my customer’s trust

Agility

• I embrace change and adapt quickly to it
• I’m able to navigate ambiguity and remain resilient through ups and downs by staying calm under pressure and taking care of my overall well-being

Innovation

• I am beginning to push boundaries to generate and implement ideas that aim to drive our products and tools forward
• I set audacious goals, take risks, and share lessons learned
• I have a growth mindset and am comfortable experimenting, learning, and owning the outcomes

Strategy

• I define the technical roadmap for impactful multi-phase projects, refining it as the projects progress to deliver customer value quickly, and provide leadership for the people executing on the project
• I define my team's priorities and secure buy-in in partnership with my manager
• I generate excitement for my/the team's strategy

Personal Growth

• I proactively ask for feedback from those I work with, know my strengths, and identify ways to take actions on my development areas
• I have self-awareness and connect with others with empathy
• I drive discussions with my manager about aspirational goals and seek out opportunities to learn and grow

Talent Development

• I model integrity and a high standard of excellence for my work. I leverage this to set and hold the bar for quality and best practices for my team (e.g. via code and design reviews)
• I identify and support areas of growth for my teammates that take into account their skills, backgrounds and working styles
• I solicit and offer honest, constructive, direct, and actionable feedback that is delivered with empathy to help others learn and grow into the next level
• I contribute to interviewing, and gain the trust of candidates. I can represent Dropbox's mission, strategy, and culture throughout the interview process
• I am able to represent my team’s technical challenges to potential candidates in a compelling way (e.g. 1:1 sell chats, blog posts, public speaking)

Collaboration

• I promote and role model Dropbox core values, leading by example
• I build relationships and drive coordination across teams & disciplines, helping get to positive outcomes
• I proactively communicate and coordinate my team’s requirements with other groups and teams in engineering
• I am effective at working with cross-functional stakeholders to identify technical blindspots and clarify ambiguity in their ideas
• I avoid blame and solve the right problems, disagreeing and committing when necessary

Organizational Health

• Working with my manager, I leverage the strengths & skills of the members of my team, and help identify talent gaps required for team success
• I motivate others to bring their authentic selves every day and contribute to building community at Dropbox
• I practice the Dropbox Diversity Commitments on a regular basis
• I champion good virtual first practices that help my team collaborate effectively
• I help shape the Dropbox engineering culture through my involvement with activities outside of my team (e.g. presenting tech talks, participating in Eng RFCs, creating interview questions, planning hackweek)

Communication

• I tailor my message to my audience, presenting it clearly and concisely at the right altitude
• I proactively share information so the right people are informed and aligned

Culture Leader

• I act as a partner to my manager in setting the cultural tone for the team. I support an environment where all Dropboxers are included and heard
• I help my team network and build relationships across Dropbox, creating connection and inclusion across my team and with other teams

Systems Fluency

• I deeply understand and can improve at least one of the impactful systems utilized at Dropbox and am considered the expert on the system or am driving improvements across many impactful systems more broadly.

Code Fluency

• The expectations for code fluency do not go up beyond L3 (though some specialist engineers may go deep in this area).

Impact

• I identify and execute on opportunities that have area/group-wide impact
• I execute large projects to a very high standard — e.g. against a tight deadline with significant consequences of failure, or in a manner that allows rapid learning to clarify significant ambiguity, or to a standard of quality well exceeding that of the current system (though not all simultaneously)
• I know which levers to pull to drive meaningful results and understand the wider, cross-functional implications of my work. I proactively account for risks and monitor their likelihood. My project planning accounts for new capabilities necessary to deliver large-scale business impact and I work closely with partner teams to prioritize the development of these capabilities.
• I proactively identify and help to refocus my team's efforts when projects are off-course or not technically feasible and results aren’t moving the needle for our business/team goals or serving the needs of customers in a meaningful way

Ownership

• I have a sense of responsibility and obligation to act on opportunities I see across the engineering org/company

Decision Making

• I have a holistic view of the engineering org and Dropbox’s goals and use my experience and judgment to make decisions optimized for the wider org, rather than my local project alone
• I act thoughtfully and decisively in critical situations even when making challenging or unpopular decisions
• I'm able to reach the right decision despite conflicting perspectives

Agility

• When necessary, I am able to introduce change into the organization, help others understand the business case for change, and create excitement to drive adoption of the change

Innovation

• I push boundaries to generate and implement breakthrough ideas that aim to create new products or advance existing products and drive our tools forward
• I create an environment supporting experimentation and iteration towards audacious goals.

Strategy

• I define a long-term vision for my team that factors in company-wide priorities as well as the technical limitations and possibilities of Dropbox’s software and systems. I inspire my team and cross-discipline stakeholders to work toward that vision
• I anticipate challenges and am able to influence the technical direction of the team or org to execute on that vision even in the face of potential significant misalignment

Personal Growth

• I proactively ask for feedback from those I work with and identify ways to act upon it
• I have self-awareness about my strengths and areas for development
• I drive discussions with my manager about aspirational goals and seek out opportunities to learn and grow

Hiring

• I am an active participant in the hiring process for senior candidates (for example, by participating in hiring committee, debriefs, etc.)
• I gain the trust of candidates and can represent Dropbox's mission, strategy, and culture throughout the interview process
• I am an effective partner to my manager and am able to represent my team’s technical challenges to candidates in an exciting way (e.g. 1:1 sell chats, blog posts, public speaking)

Talent Development

• I am a role model for other Dropboxers and model a standard of excellence that supports a culture of high performance on my team
• I invest time to coach and mentor my teammates (particularly ones looking to grow into L4/L5). I take into account their skills, backgrounds, working styles and solicit and provide thoughtful, constructive feedback to them.
• I devote time to spreading my knowledge widely via talks, blog posts or written documentation
• I participate in SPRiTEs calibration sessions by providing meaningful feedback to ensure fair and consistent decisions

Collaboration

• I help break down silos within and across functions and influence others to reach the best outcome for Dropbox
• I build deep cross-functional relationships, facilitate the right conversations, and settle disagreements by managing different viewpoints
• I disagree and commit when necessary to move critical priorities forward

Organizational Health

• I act as a partner to managers in setting the cultural tone for the team. I create an inclusive environment for others and ensure diverse perspectives are included
• Working with my manager, I leverage the strengths & skills of the members of my team, and help identify talent gaps required for team success
• I personify Dropbox's culture and values. I champion community building efforts and inclusion initiatives. I work in close partnership with the management team to ensure a healthy engineering org.
• I lead by example. I am aware of my public presence and actions and my influence on the people around me and Dropbox’s culture

Communication

• I tailor my message to my audience, presenting it clearly and concisely at the right altitude
• I fine tune my approach to getting buy-in and influencing stakeholders across a variety of audiences

Systems Fluency

• I fully understand the layers of the system and appropriate tooling for each one and know when to engage peers when my own knowledge isn’t adequate in one.
• I deeply understand the systems at Dropbox and how to optimize the lowest levels of the systems and where this is appropriate.
• I deeply understand and can improve multiple of the major systems utilized at Dropbox and are considered the expert on the systems

Systems Design

• I own the definition of the core reliability targets (SLO/SLAs) of Dropbox driven by my area of focus and identify the appropriate failure domains for the company.
• I analyze patterns in incidents and identify improvements needed across Dropbox in how we operate and design software.
• I own the core reliability of Dropbox and identify the appropriate failure domains for the company.
• I make correct technology choices for components needed as part of a larger architecture, including making build vs buy choices for specific components, and choosing frameworks. I am capable of owning the overall health and engineering quality of the systems in my area - e.g. surfacing reliability risks, driving regular health reviews, curating reliability strategy, etc - and ensuring that the health and maintenance of my systems do not depend on the maintainers having my expertise.
• I am capable of driving overall reliability strategy of significant systems with high reliability or quality requirements.
• I am capable of designing systems with significant ambiguity and/or lots of systems that depend on it

Code Fluency

• The expectations for code fluency do not go beyond L3 (though some specialist engineers may go deep in this area).

Technical Strategy

• I am accountable for alignment of the software and systems in my area to overall reliability strategy, making tradeoffs where appropriate in consultation with principal engineers.

Impact

• I identify and execute on significant group/company-wide opportunities by understanding how technical capabilities meet customer needs. I proactively work with business owners to help them understand these new capabilities and work with them to build the right roadmap for the business.
• I execute large projects to a very high standard — e.g. against a tight deadline with significant consequences of failure, or in a manner that allows rapid learning to clarify significant ambiguity, or to a standard of quality well exceeding that of the current system (though not all simultaneously)
• I proactively identify and help to refocus my team's efforts when projects are off-course or not technically feasible and results aren’t moving the needle for our business/team goals or serving the needs of customers in a meaningful way
• I know which levers to pull to drive meaningful results and understand the wider, cross-functional implications of my work

Ownership

• I have a sense of responsibility and obligation to act on opportunities I see across the engineering org/company
• I transcend organizational boundaries by taking a holistic view of my group’s goals and taking responsibility across my group, not just within my immediate scope of ownership

Decision Making

• I act thoughtfully and decisively in critical situations even when making challenging or unpopular decisions
• I'm able to reach the right decision despite conflicting perspectives

Agility

• When necessary, I am able to introduce change into the organization, help others understand the business case for change, and create excitement to drive adoption of the change

Innovation

• I push boundaries to generate and implement breakthrough ideas that aim to drive our products and tools forward
• I demonstrate creativity, e.g. by finding simple, generalizable solutions that open up or unblock new technical or business opportunities in unexpected ways.
• I create an environment supporting experimentation and iteration

Strategy

• I partner with Directors and other members of senior EPD leadership to define a long-term vision for my group that factors in both a deep understanding of what is happening in the business and in the market as well as the technical limitations and possibilities of Dropbox’s software and systems.
• I anticipate challenges and am able to influence the technical direction of the team or org to execute on that vision even in the face of significant misalignment

Personal Growth

• I proactively ask for feedback from those I work with and identify ways to act upon it
• I have self-awareness about my strengths and areas for development
• I drive discussions with my manager about aspirational goals and seek out opportunities to learn and grow

Hiring

• I am an active participant in the hiring process for senior candidates (for example, by participating in hiring committee, debriefs etc)
• I attract talent for a variety of roles with diversity in mind
• I gain the trust of candidates and can represent Dropbox's mission, strategy, and culture throughout the interview process.
• I am an effective partner to my manager and am able to represent my team’s technical challenges to candidates in an exciting way (e.g. 1:1 selling, blog posts, public speaking)

Talent Development

• I model a standard of excellence that supports a culture of high performance on my team. I drive EPD-wide processes and define the bar for engineering-wide quality and best practices.
• I invest time to coach and mentor my teammates (particularly ones looking to grow into L5/L6). I take into account their skills, backgrounds, working styles and solicit and provide thoughtful, constructive feedback to them.
• I devote time to spreading my knowledge widely via talks, blog posts or written documentation.
• I participate in SPRiTEs calibration sessions by providing meaningful feedback to ensure fair and consistent decisions

Collaboration

• I help break down silos within and across functions and influence others to reach the best outcome for Dropbox
• I build deep cross-functional relationships, facilitate the right conversations, and settle disagreements by managing different viewpoints
• I disagree and commit when necessary to move critical priorities forward

Organizational Health

• I act as a partner to managers in setting the cultural tone for the org. I create an inclusive environment for others and ensure diverse perspectives are included
• Working with my manager, I leverage the strengths & skills of the members of my team, and help identify talent gaps required for team success
• I personify Dropbox's culture and values. I champion community building efforts and inclusion initiatives. I work in close partnership with senior EPD leadership to ensure a healthy engineering org.
• I lead by example. I am aware of my public presence and actions and my influence on the people around me and Dropbox’s culture

Communication

• I develop compelling messages and effectively present them at the executive level
• I fine tune my approach to getting buy-in and influencing stakeholders across a variety of audiences

Systems Fluency

• The expectations for systems fluency do not go up beyond L5 (though some specialist engineers may go deep in this area).

Systems Design

• I own defining the strategy for the alignment of the software and systems in my area to overall reliability strategy, making tradeoffs where appropriate in consultation with principal engineers.
• I analyze patterns in incidents and identify improvements needed across Dropbox in how we operate and design software.
• I own the core reliability of Dropbox and identify the appropriate failure domains for the company.
• I make correct technology choices for components needed as part of a larger architecture, including making build vs buy choices for specific components, and choosing frameworks.
• I am capable of owning the overall health and engineering quality of the systems in your area - e.g. surfacing reliability risks, driving regular health reviews, curating reliability strategy, etc - and ensuring that the health and maintenance of my systems do not depend on the maintainers having my expertise.
• I am capable of driving overall reliability strategy of significant systems with high reliability or quality requirements.
• I am capable of designing systems with significant ambiguity and/or lots of systems that depend on it.
• I can design systems that require research on what is possible rather than relying on my past experience, and where, consequently, a significant portion of the challenge is designing an appropriately staged validation plan.
• I define the high level systems we need to build to meet strategic objectives.

Code Fluency

• The expectations for code fluency do not go up beyond L3 (though some specialist engineers may go deep in this area).

Technical Strategy

• I am responsible for making technical choices that have no one clearly correct answer but whose consequences have a sweeping effect across your scope in the organization.
• I rally my organization around those choices by providing a clear rationale and technical vision backing them.

Impact

• I identify and execute on significant engineering/company-wide opportunities by understanding how technical capabilities meet customer needs. I proactively work with business owners to help them understand these new capabilities and work with them to build the right roadmap for the business.
• I execute large projects to a very high standard — e.g. against a tight deadline with significant consequences of failure, or in a manner that allows rapid learning to clarify significant ambiguity, or to a standard of quality well exceeding that of the current system (though not all simultaneously)
• I proactively identify and help to refocus my team's efforts when projects are off-course or not technically feasible and results aren’t moving the needle for our business/team goals or serving the needs of customers in a meaningful way
• I know which levers to pull to drive meaningful results and understand the wider, cross-functional implications of my work

Ownership

• I have a sense of responsibility and obligation to act on opportunities I see across the engineering org/company
• I transcend organizational boundaries by taking a holistic view of the company’s goals and taking responsibility across EPD, not just within my immediate scope of ownership.

Decision Making

• I act thoughtfully and decisively in critical situations even when making challenging or unpopular decisions
• I'm able to reach the right decision despite conflicting perspectives

Agility

• When necessary, I am able to introduce change into the organization, help others understand the business case for change, and create excitement to drive adoption of the change

Innovation

• I push boundaries to generate and implement breakthrough ideas that aim to drive our products and tools forward
• I demonstrate creativity, e.g. by finding simple, generalizable solutions that open up or unblock new technical or business opportunities in unexpected ways
• I create an environment supporting experimentation and iteration.

Strategy

• I partner with Directors and other members of senior EPD leadership to define a long-term vision for my team or org that factors in both a deep understanding of what is happening in the business and in the market as well as the technical limitations and possibilities of Dropbox’s software and systems.
• I anticipate challenges and am able to influence the technical direction of team team or org to execute on that vision even in the face of potential significant misalignment

Personal Growth

• I proactively ask for feedback from those I work with and identify ways to act upon it
• I have self-awareness about my strengths and areas for development
• I drive discussions with my manager about aspirational goals and seek out opportunities to learn and grow

Hiring

• I am an active participant in the hiring process for senior candidates (for example, by participating in hiring committee, debriefs etc)
• I attract talent for a variety of roles with diversity in mind
• I gain the trust of candidates and can represent Dropbox's mission, strategy, and culture throughout the interview process.
• I am an effective partner to my manager and am able to represent my team’s technical challenges to candidates in an exciting way (e.g. 1:1 selling, blog posts, public speaking)

Talent Development

• I model a standard of excellence that supports a culture of high performance on my team. I drive EPD-wide processes and define the bar for engineering-wide quality and best practices.
• I invest time to coach and mentor my teammates (particularly ones looking to grow into L6/L7). I take into account their skills, backgrounds, working styles and solicit and provide thoughtful, constructive feedback to them.
• I devote time to spreading my knowledge widely via talks, blog posts or written documentation.
• I participate in SPRiTEs calibration sessions by providing meaningful feedback to ensure fair and consistent decisions

Collaboration

• I help break down silos within and across functions and influence others to reach the best outcome for Dropbox
• I build deep cross-functional relationships, facilitate the right conversations, and settle disagreements by managing different viewpoints
• I disagree and commit when necessary to move critical priorities forward

Organizational Health

• I act as a partner to managers in setting the cultural tone for the engineering org. I create an inclusive environment for others and ensure diverse perspectives are included
• Working with my manager, I leverage the strengths & skills of the members of my team, and help identify talent gaps required for team success
• I personify Dropbox's culture and values. I champion community building efforts and inclusion initiatives. I work in close partnership with senior EPD leadership to ensure a healthy engineering org.
• I lead by example. I am aware of my public presence and actions and my influence on the people around me and Dropbox’s culture.

Communication

• I develop compelling messages and effectively present them at the executive level
• I fine tune my approach to getting buy-in and influencing stakeholders across a variety of audiences

Systems Fluency

• The expectations for systems fluency do not go up beyond L5 (though some specialist engineers may go deep in this area).

Systems Design

• The expectations for code fluency do not go up beyond L3 (though some specialist engineers may go deep in this area).

Code Fluency

• The expectations for systems design do not go up beyond L6.

Technical Strategy

• The expectations for technical strategy do not currently go up beyond L6 but we expect this to change over time as we have more examples of principal engineers working in this area.