Dropbox: Test Engineering Career Framework

Impact

• I have a bias for actions, act with urgency and deliver high-quality work that will add the most value for our business, cross-functional stakeholders, and customers
• 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, and team processes
• I own my decisions and mistakes, 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
• I respond with urgency to operational issues (e.g., SEVs), owning resolution within my sphere of responsibility
• I look for opportunities to reduce KTLO and and work with the team to ease the burden for on-call
• I am vigilant about degradations in service by tracking key metrics, and I advocate for declaring a SEV if my concerns are warranted

Decision Making

• I Identify and gather input from the right stakeholders and consider customer needs to make informed and timely decisions
• I understand the implications of my decisions and adjust my approach based on the impact and risk, and share that rationale with relevant stakeholders
• I escalate to my manager when I need help with a decision about my deliverables or priorities

Agility

• I have an open mindset to change, and am enthusiastic about new initiatives
• I work with my manager to navigate complex and ambiguous situations
• I am learning to stay calm under pressure and building practices to take care of my well-being

Innovation

• I ask questions and contribute to new ideas/approaches
• I have a growth mindset and am comfortable experimenting with new approaches, learning, owning the outcomes, and sharing what I learned

Personal growth

• I proactively ask for feedback from my manager, team, and cross-functional stakeholders 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 (e.g., PGP, Dropbox-offered training, leveraging perks allowance etc.)

Team Development

• I model integrity and a high standard of excellence for my work
• I help more junior members of my team, interns, or new hires taking into account their unique strengths, backgrounds, and working styles
• I offer honest, timely and direct feedback that is delivered with empathy to help others learn and grow
• I actively contribute to interviewing and assessing candidates to help us build a diverse and talented team in terms of background and location. 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 and adopt necessary tools (e.g., pair programming) that adapts to virtual first and get work done
• I work with my manager to engage in productive conflict with thoughtful questioning and have the courage to state my point of view
• I avoid blame, clarify problems to focus on solutions, and “disagree and commit” when necessary to move decisions forward
• I promote and role model Dropbox core values

Organizational Health

• I contribute to a positive sense of community on the team (e.g. engage in team lunches, team offsites, and other virtual or in-person 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 Virtual First practices that help my team collaborate effectively

Communication

• I write and speak with clarity and focus
• I listen to understand others and ask clarifying questions
• I proactively 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)

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 actively engage and reconcile different opinions in code reviews and can follow best practices set up by others
• I’m 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
• I'm beginning to specialize in a testing infrastructure/tooling/automation domain (ex: Web Full Stack, Front-end, Back-end, Mobile Full Stack) and am actively learning the ecosystem of tools and libraries that support a specific domain.

Software Design

• I’m able to understand the existing designs and technology choices within my area, and I make appropriate adjustments to existing designs when necessary
• Code modules I write exhibit good separation of concerns

Architecture Design

• I’m able to decompose a simple problem or business scenario into a solution composed of multiple test/automation software components interacting with each other.

Quality Engineering Fluency

• I am beginning to specialize in managing quality within a specific engineering domain (ex: Web Full Stack, Front-end, Back-end, Mobile Full Stack)
• I’m able to effectively apply my general knowledge of modern quality management approaches (ex: Regression, System, Functional, Integration, Unit) to uncover technical defects/failures.
• My focus is primarily on executing a quality management approach against functional requirements within existing test/automation strategies and frameworks, I ensure high code quality in features I evaluate.
• Working with Senior SDET’s I’m able to decompose problems and business scenarios into quality management solutions.
• I primarily engage with QE peers to remain in alignment on team priorities and the needs of our customers.
• I am hyper-focused on contributing to the delivery of risk-driven quality management solutions that are founded in the quality metrics/measurements my team reports to cross-functional partners.
• The metrics I report to my QE team represent a modern approach to measuring the impact of the quality approach I execute against and are focused on identifying technical defects/bugs and technical risks.

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 mistakes on my project and take action to prevent them in the future. I embrace and share the learnings with others
• When I encounter barriers,I unblock myself and my team by proactively assessing and eliminating the root cause
• I respond with urgency to operational issues (e.g., SEVs), owning resolution within my sphere of responsibility
• I actively seek out and eliminate sources of toil on the team and help reduce the impact of KTLO and SEVs
• I am unafraid of declaring a SEV when needed
• I proactively create and update playbooks for components I own

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 and don’t cut corners that would compromise my customer’s trust
• When possible I leverage customer insights/data to inform decisions, balancing value for the customer with other business goals
• I escalate to my manager when I need help with a decision about my deliverables or priorities

Agility

• I embrace change and adapt quickly to it
• I remain resilient through change by staying calm under pressure and taking care of my well-being
• I navigate ambiguity by focusing on the greater purpose, goals, and desired impact to move forward one step at a time

Innovation

• I ask questions and contribute to new ideas/approaches
• I have a growth mindset and am comfortable experimenting with new approaches, learning, owning the outcomes, and sharing what I learned
• I work with my manager to find new ways of utilizing customer feedback to influence our teams' plans

Strategy

• I work collaboratively with my manager to set realistic and ambitious short-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 my manager, team, and cross-functional stakeholders and identify ways to act upon it
• I have self-awareness about my strengths and work on my development areas
• I connect with others with empathy and understanding
• I drive discussions with my manager about aspirational goals and seek out opportunities to learn and grow (e.g., PGP, Dropbox-offered training, leveraging perks allowance etc.)

Team 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 unique skills, strengths, backgrounds and working styles
• I actively look for opportunities to mentor new hires, interns and apprentices
• I solicit and offer honest and constructive feedback that is delivered with empathy to help others learn and grow
• I actively 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 engage in productive conflict with thoughtful questioning and have the courage to state my point of view
• 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 to move decisions forward
• I promote and role model Dropbox core values

Organizational Health

• I build relationships across teams and help get to positive outcomes
• I engage in productive conflict with thoughtful questioning and have the courage to state my point of view
• 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 to move decisions forward
• I promote and role model Dropbox core values

Communication

• I tailor my message to my audience, presenting it clearly and concisely at the right altitude
• I proactively share information so my manager, team, and stakeholders are informed and aligned
• I set the right expectation with my manager to balance my work and mentorship requirements
• If there is a significant issue not being addressed, I initiate a crucial conversation even when uncomfortable

Code Fluency

• I develop and deploy test infrastructure/tooling/automation solutions that capture the essential nature of the problem space and is appropriately flexible, reusable, efficient, and adaptable to changing requirements.
• I specialize in a testing infrastructure/tooling/automation domain (ex: Web Full Stack, Front-end, Back-end, Mobile Full Stack) and have a strong awareness of the ecosystem of tools and libraries that support this domain
• I ensure high code quality in code reviews. I adopt approaches (e.g., set up best practices and coding standards, help resolve differences of opinions) to foster an effective/collaborative code review culture.
• 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.
• I ensure high code quality in code reviews, I adopt approaches (e.g., set up best practices and coding standards, help resolve differences of opinion) to foster an effective/collaborative code review culture
• I look for ways to reduce future toil and tech debt for existing test/automation components my team owns.

Software Design

• I am able to independently design test infrastructure/tooling/automation software components in well scoped scenarios, with simplicity and maintenance as key considerations. My components are reliable, debugged and have logical utilities that are not easily misused.
• Technical designs that I produce exhibit good separation of concerns
• I know when to make significant refactors and when it is better to leave things as-is
• I have a strong grasp of the libraries, platforms, and systems that I rely on, allowing me to apply them expertly
• I am able to understand the existing feature development designs and technology choices within my area and I make appropriate adjustments to existing QE practice designs based on how my product continues to mature.
• I look for ways to reduce future toil and tech debt for existing test infrastructure/tooling/automation components my team owns.
• I produce technical documentation for the testing infrastructure/tools/automation I create with a focus on improving developer efficiency and driving alignment within my team.

Architecture Design

• I’m able to decompose a simple problem or business scenario into test/automation solutions composted of multiple software components interacting with each other
• I proactively identify issues with technical dependencies of my project that are owned by other teams and surface them

Quality Engineering Fluency

• I am a domain expert in managing quality within at least one engineering domain (ex: Full Stack Web, Front-end, Back-end, Full Stack Mobile)
• I have expert level knowledge of all modern quality management approaches (ex: Regression, System, Functional, Integration, Unit)
• I ensure high code quality in features I evaluate.
• I’m able to independently decompose problems and business scenarios into quality management solutions
• My quality management approach is informed by technical specs, hands-on knowledge of the technology stacks in my area
• I effectively engage in the PDLC, from ideation to deployment of features, and contribute both a quality and customer focused perspective
• With a focus on gray box testing, I evaluate non-functional requirements by effectively applying my working knowledge of performance, load, and security testing.
• I make sure that automation script development and execute is included in the “Definition of done” and focus on removing redundancy in manual test execution
• My code is focus on reducing unknowns, variability, and risks associated to completion of the PDLC. My solutions uncover technical bugs/failures and effectively report on risk.
• I effectively engage with cross-functional partners to remain in alignment on the needs of our customers and overall business goals. I use this information to inform how/when/where I deploy my quality practices.

Quality Assessment

• I am hyper-focused on delivering risk-driven quality management solutions that are founded in the quality metrics/measurements I gather and report to my QE team and cross-functional partners.
• The data I independently collect (ex: bug reports, quality metrics/measurements) as part of my quality management strategy accurately reports technical bugs/failures with a focus on identifying root causes and providing quick feedback to cross-functional partners.
• The metrics I report represent a modern approach to applying quality engineering best practices and reflect a deep understanding of my engineering domain (ex: Full Stack, FE, BE, Mobile).

Business Acumen

• I engage in listening sessions (All Hands, Quarterly Business Updates, etc.) to increase my learning and guide my work/priorities
• I have a working knowledge of Dropbox’s org/team structure and how teams work together across Dropbox, and able to independently work with partner engineering teams to unblock code reviews, and engineering designs

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
• I improve how our team measures and communicates customer impact

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 mistakes on my project and take action to prevent them in the future. I embrace and share the learnings from those failureswith others.
• When I encounter barriers, I unblock myself and my team by proactively assessing and eliminating the root cause, and focusing on the solutions
• I respond with urgency, and drive urgency in my team to operational issues (e.g., SEVs), owning resolution within my sphere of responsibility
• I actively seek out and eliminate sources of toil on the team and help reduce the impact of KTLO and SEVs
• I am unafraid of declaring a SEV when needed
• I proactively create and/or update playbooks for components I own

Decision Making

• I make informed decisions by having productive debate with the right stakeholders, seeking diverse perspectives, balancing details with the big picture, and optimizing for the company
• 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 and don’t cut corners that would compromise my customer’s trust

Agility

• I embrace change and adapt quickly to it
• I remain resilient through change by staying calm under pressure and taking care of my well-being
• I navigate ambiguity by focusing on the greater purpose, goals, and desired impact to move forward one step at a time

Innovation

• I have a growth mindset and am comfortable experimenting with new approaches, learning, owning the outcomes, and sharing what I learned
• I set audacious goals, take risks, and share lessons learned
• I am beginning to push boundaries using industry best practices and customer feedback to implement strategies that drive our products, tools, or services forward

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
• In partnership with my manager I define my team's priorities and secure buy-in by engaging stakeholders, and aligning with company priorities and customer needs
• I generate excitement for my/the team's strategy

Personal Growth

• I proactively ask for feedback from my manager, team, and cross-functional stakeholders. I 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 (e.g., PGP, Dropbox-offered training, leveraging perks allowance etc.)

Team 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 unique skills, strengths, 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 actively contribute to interviewing, and gain the trust of candidates and 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 engage in productive conflict with thoughtful questioning and have the courage to state my point of view
• I avoid blame and solve the right problems, disagreeing and committing when necessary to move decisions forward

Organizational Health

• Working with my manager, I leverage the unique strengths & skills of the members of my team, and help identify talent gaps required for team success
• I enable others to bring their authentic selves at work and contribute to building community at Dropbox
• I ensure diverse perspectives are included, leveraging inclusive meeting practices
• 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 communicate with clarity, brevity, focus, and tailor my message to my audience presenting it at the right altitude
• I proactively share information so the relevant stakeholders are informed and aligned
• I seek to listen and understand others
• I am effective in holding crucial conversations even when uncomfortable
• I influence stakeholders across a variety of audiences

Culture Leader

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

Code Fluency

• The expectations for L3 code fluency are still applicable here (though some specialist engineers may go deep in this area)
• I look for ways to simplify code and infrastructure. I prioritize tasks that lead to lower system and infrastructure maintenance and migration costs with meaningful and measurable impact.
• I can find ways to improve developer efficiency as measured by cycle time, ramp-up time, or other similar measurements.
• I preemptively identify and resolve technical risks before they jeopardize the project. I resolve cross-team dependencies earlier to ensure the successful execution of the project.
• I avoid re-inventing the wheel by leveraging other Dropbox solutions or off-the-shelf solutions with the possible trade-off in mind. I write libraries and modules that can be extended and adopted by other teams at Dropbox to increase their efficiency.

Software Design

• I am responsible for designing the software or systems required in my area of ownership and ensuring that they meet their design objectives.
• I am able to give quality feedback on designs written by other members of my team, asking probing, insightful questions that solidify choices and surface erroneous assumptions
• I effectively and quickly debug cross-module issues, and may intuit where bugs might lie due to my deep knowledge of the libraries, platforms, and systems that my software relies on

Architecture Design

• I’m able to create coherent test/automation framework design 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’m 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 avoid introducing toil and future maintenace work by proactively avoiding scaling issues and providing adequate documentation.
• I design clear success metrics and achieve those metrics consistently post-launch through the lifetime of the system or feature. 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.

Technical Strategy

• I’m responsible for alignment of the software and systems in my team to overall technical strategy, making tradeoffs where appropriate in consultation with staff engineers

Quality Engineering Fluency

• The expectations for L3 SDET fluency are still applicable here (though some specialist engineers may go deep in this area)
• Partnering with my manager, I identify and develop high impact test/automation approaches and solutions that will have a lasting impact on my QE teams ability to effectively manage quality for highly complex and ambiguous projects.
• I effectively engage with QE peers outside of my direct scope/team to remain in alignment on the needs of our customers and overall business goals. I use this information to inform how/when/where I deploy my quality practices.
• I look for ways to simplify test/automation strategies/approaches and participate in technical discussions on how to simplify feature code and quality managements strategies. I prioritize tasks that lead to increased test/automation efficiency and developer productivity.
• I can find ways to improve quality management efficiency as measured by cycle time, ramp-up time, or other similar measurements.
• I avoid re-inventing the wheel by leveraging other Dropbox solutions or off-the-shelf solutions with possible trade-offs in mind. I develop approaches and documentation that can be extended and adopted by other teams at Dropbox to increase efficiency
• I avoid introducing toil and future maintenance work by proactively avoiding scaling issues and providing adequate documentation.
• I actively contribute to quarterly/annual strategic planning for my direct QE team.
• I have built/maintained relationships with cross-functional partners that allow me to effectively participate in product planning sessions where I successfully have quality initiatives prioritized as first class items that are actioned against with the right level of urgency an investment.

Quality Assessment

• The expectations for L3 Quality Assessment are still applicable here (though some specialist engineers may go deep in this area)
• I partner with my Engineering Manager to develop quality metrics/measurement KPI’s for my direct QE team and I contribute to setting of thresholds, identifying and executing against AI’s, developing mitigation strategies, etc.

Business Acumen

• I engage in listening sessions (All Hands, Quarterly Business Updates, etc.) to increase my learning and guide my work/priorities
• I have a working knowledge of Dropbox’s org/team structure and how teams work together across Dropbox, and am able to help my team effectively collaborate effectively with other teams across our org

Team 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
• If requested, I participate in SPRiTEs calibration sessions by providing meaningful feedback to ensure fair and consistent decisions
• I am an active participant in the hiring process for senior candidates, and managers (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)

Collaboration

• I promote and role model Dropbox core values, leading by example
• I help break down silos within and across functions and influence others to reach the best outcome for Dropbox regardless of my level/title
• I build deep cross-functional relationships, facilitate the right conversations, and settle disagreements by managing different viewpoints
• I engage in productive conflict with thoughtful questioning and have the courage to state my point of view
• I balance multiple perspectives and disagree and commit when necessary to move key company decisions, and critical priorities forward

Organizational Health

• I leverage the unique strengths & skills of the members of my team, and help identify talent gaps required for team success
• I champion community building efforts and inclusion initiatives. I work in close partnership with the management team to ensure a healthy engineering org
• I practice the Dropbox Diversity Commitments on a regular basis
• I build relationships and connections, and use meeting practices inclusive meeting practices to support an inclusive environment for all Dropboxers

Communication

• I tailor my message to my audience, presenting it clearly and concisely at the right altitude
• If asked, I write to crisp narratives to create understanding, influence others, and enable effective decision-making
• I fine tune my approach to getting buy-in and influencing stakeholders across a variety of audiences
• I lead by example by holding crucial conversations even when they feel uncomfortable
• I seek to listen and understand others

Culture Leader

• I act as a partner to my manager in setting the cultural tone for the team. I help create an inclusive environment of psychological safety to support connection, empathy, and productive conflict where dissenting, and diverse opinions are valued and addressed.
• 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
• I help my team network and build relationships across Dropbox, creating connection and inclusion across my team and with other teams
• I personify Dropbox core's values and support our community
• I point out when actions or decisions contradict Dropbox core's values and suggest alternatives more aligned with our values

Code Fluency

• The expectations for code fluency do not go beyond L4 (though some specialist engineers may go deep in this area)

Software Design

• I design software components that are difficult to misuse and flexible in the face of an increase in the number of adjacent use cases as appropriate to the direction of the business (neither under nor over-designed)
• I reduce complex designs and concepts to simple foundational components through correct choices of data structures, applications of algorithms, or other deep insight into the problem space (ex: 3 tree model in sync engine) and create simple interfaces to complex underlying systems
• I’m able to review designs in related areas with high quality and ensure quality for cross-team cross-module design/API issues
• I may have deep expertise in implementation or principles behind some of the libraries, platforms and systems relevant to my team's work

Architecture Design

• 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’m capable of owning the overall health and engineering quality of a system or collection of features - e.g. driving regular health reviews, curating test strategy, etc - and ensuring that the health and maintenance of my systems do not depend on the maintainers having my expertise
• I’m capable of driving overall testing strategy of a significant system with high reliability or quality requirements (e.g. building validation systems or new test frameworks to do so)
• I’m capable of designing systems with significant ambiguity and/or lots of systems that depend on it

Technical Strategy

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

Quality Engineering Fluency

• Partnering with the Head of QE, I identify and develop high impact test/automation approaches and solutions that will have a lasting impact on the Quality Engineering Department and therefore all of Dropbox.
• I effectively engage with Staff+ Engineering EPD peers outside of my direct scope/team to remain in alignment on the needs of our customers and overall business goals. I use this information to inform how/when/where I deploy my quality practices.

Quality Assessment

• The expectations for L4 SDET Quality Assessment are still applicable here (though some specialist engineers may go deep in this area)
• I partner with the Head of QE to develop quality metrics/measurement KPI’s for the QE department and I contribute to setting thresholds, identifying and executing against AI’s, developing mitigation strategies, etc.

Business Acumen

• I leverage my fluency in Dropbox’s business, products, customers, and strategy to identify opportunities where my team can help Dropbox meet its business objectives
• I can explain how Dropbox’s strategy and business priorities inform and guide my/my team’s priorities.

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 customers in a meaningful way
• I deliver net-new ways for our team/org to measure and communicate customer impact

Ownership

• I have a sense of responsibility and obligation to act on opportunities and create alignment across the engineering org/company to improve outcomes for our customers
• I own my decisions and mistakes and take action to prevent similar mistakes in the future, sharing the learnings with others
• When I or my team encounter barriers, I unblock us by assessing and eliminating the root cause, including recommending process and scale improvements

Decision Making

• I have a holistic view of the engineering org, customer insights 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. Instead of trying to build consensus, I seek diverse perspectives, encourage productive debate with the right stakeholders and lead decision-making in critical situations even when making unpopular decisions
• I'm able to reach the right decision despite conflicting perspectives, disagreeing and committing when necessary

Agility

• I remain resilient through change by staying calm under pressure and taking care of my well-being
• I navigate ambiguity by focusing on the greater purpose, goals, and desired impact to move forward one step at a time

Innovation

• I push boundaries to leveraging industry best practices and customer feedback to generate and implement breakthrough ideas that aim to create new products or advance existing products and drive our tools forward
• I create psychological safety and encourage a growth mindset with colleagues, supporting experimentation and iteration towards audacious goals

Strategy and Change Management

• When necessary, I am able to help my manager introduce change into the organization, help others understand the business case for change, and create excitement to drive adoption of the change
• I define a long-term strategy for my team that factors in company-wide priorities, customer needs 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 strategy
• 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
• I find new and creative ways of leveraging customer insights and including customer voices to influence strategy

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 take actions on my development areas
• I connect with others with empathy and understanding
• I drive discussions with my manager about aspirational goals and seek out opportunities to learn and grow (e.g., PGP, Dropbox-offered training, leveraging perks allowance etc.)