Associate Engineer L1
Delivers well-defined stories with guidance, and learns how we build.
What we expect at L1
| Scope | Well-defined stories and tasks inside a project someone else leads. |
|---|---|
| Independence and judgment | Asks early when something is unclear. Needs help breaking down larger work. |
| Technical skills | Working knowledge of Ruby, Rails, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SQL basics and Git. Debugs issues in code they're working on, with help, and follows our secure-coding practices. |
| AI-assisted delivery | Uses approved AI tools to speed up routine work and checks every result before relying on it. |
| Quality and review | Tests their own changes, explains them in the pull request, and checks what they release. Reads and comments on teammates' pull requests to learn the codebase. |
| Communication and influence | Writes clear updates and pull requests. Takes feedback and applies it. |
Growing toward L2 Engineer
What changes on the way to the next level. Use it in your quarterly career conversation to pick one or two areas to practice.
| Work more independently |
Finish tasks and small features with less supervision. Look for solutions yourself and spot problems before you escalate them. |
|---|---|
| Raise your code quality |
Write clean, maintainable code that follows our standards every time, and start writing tests first where it helps. |
| Connect your work to customers |
Understand what the project you're on is for, and explain how your piece helps the people who use KODE. |
| Contribute beyond your task |
Speak up in team discussions, ask clarifying questions, and help solve problems outside your assigned work. |
| Keep learning and apply it |
Grow your knowledge of Rails, databases, API design and testing, and use what you learn to improve your work. |
| AI-assisted delivery |
Choose the right AI tool for each task, run a second-agent review before you open a pull request, and learn to spot typical AI mistakes. |
At every level
Every engineer's work gets reviewed, whatever their level, and leading a project is an assignment, not a promotion. Read more on the engineering overview.