Atlassian Software Engineer Levels Explained: P30 to P90

Atlassian engineering levels run from P30 to P90, and the numbers rise in tens rather than in ones. P40 is a mid-level engineer, P50 is a senior engineer, and P50 is where most Atlassian engineers stay for years.

Managers sit on a separate M band that now starts at M60, so the first manager level carries a higher number than the senior engineer level.

None of these codes appear in a job posting. Atlassian publishes the title and a base pay range, not the P number, so two Senior Software Engineer postings can be graded at different levels.

Atlassian Levels in One Table

Atlassian does not publish this table. P30 through P70 come from levels.fyi, built from reported offers. P80 and P90 come from employees posting on Blind, though Atlassian does advertise Senior Principal Engineer and Distinguished Engineer roles, so both titles are real. The last column is a comparison guide, not an official equivalence.

Why the Numbers Go Up in Tens

P is Atlassian's individual contributor scale, and it is used across job families. levels.fyi shows the same P numbers for product managers, designers and data scientists, which is why engineering does not start at P10. The steps are tens, so there is no P31 or P45.

You will also see these levels written as P3, P4 and P5, with the trailing zero dropped.

P30: Junior Engineer

P30 is the entry level, for graduate hires and engineers with up to about two years of experience.

A P30 engineer works on well-scoped tasks with regular guidance from a senior engineer on the squad, which is what Atlassian calls a small delivery team. Someone else decides what the work should be. Our answer on what Atlassian pays freshers covers the entry numbers in India.

Moving to P40 is expected rather than optional, and employees report it needs approval from your manager and your skip manager, which is your manager's manager.

P40: Engineer

P40 is the first level where you work without close supervision. Atlassian calls it Engineer, with no seniority word in front of it.

A P40 engineer owns features from design through to production support, writes their own design documents, and mentors P30 engineers. The scope is a feature or a service, not a whole area.

levels.fyi reports a median of four to five years at P40 in the United States, and Atlassian P40 postings have asked for four to eight years.

P40 is where down-leveling usually lands. Down-leveling means an offer one level below the one you interviewed for. Candidates on Blind describe interviewing for P50, being offered P40, and finding the decision very hard to change. The Atlassian interview process runs the same rounds at both levels, so the level comes from how those rounds are graded, not from your resume.

P50: Senior Engineer

P50 is the senior engineer level, and the level most Atlassian engineers hold.

A P50 engineer leads projects that reach across several squads, sets technical direction inside one area, and decides what gets built there. The difference from P40 is scope rather than coding skill: a P40 owns a feature, while a P50 owns an area and the plan for it.

P50 is widely reported as Atlassian's terminal level. A terminal level is one you can hold for an entire career with no pressure to be promoted. Employees describe engineers staying at P50 for many years, and several say the company offers nothing between senior and principal.

The P50 loop, meaning the full set of onsite rounds, weights system design heavily, because the level is defined by the size of the problem you can own. Complete system design practice is the best preparation for it.

P60: Principal Engineer

P60 is Principal Engineer, and it covers the work that most United States companies label Staff.

A P60 engineer leads technical direction across an organization rather than inside one team. They set architecture standards that several squads build against.

The promotion from P50 to P60 changes shape, not only degree. Employees report that it needs a calibration committee, which is a panel of managers from outside your reporting line that reviews promotion cases. Promotions below this point need only your manager and your skip manager.

Many strong P50 engineers never reach P60. Employees on Blind say being hired into P60 is easier than being promoted into it.

P70, P80 and P90: The Rare Levels

Above Principal there are three more levels, all rare.

P70 is Senior Principal Engineer. Atlassian advertises these roles publicly, with titles such as Senior Principal Engineer, Identity. It is the highest level for which levels.fyi has reported pay.

P80 is Lead Principal Engineer and P90 is Distinguished Engineer. Both names come from employee reports rather than from Atlassian. The Distinguished title is real: one Atlassian posting for a Distinguished Engineer described owning the largest technical problems across the company and defining its architecture standards.

These levels are filled by outside hiring far more often than by promotion.

The M Band: How Atlassian Levels Managers

Managers sit on their own scale, which does not line up with the P numbers.

The first manager level is M60. Atlassian removed the M50 level, which managed a single engineering team. A former Atlassian manager has written that the minimum became M60, responsible for roughly twenty technical people across several squads. levels.fyi lists M60, M70, M80 and M90 for software engineering managers, and names M60 as the entry level.

Atlassian advertises these roles as Engineering Manager, Senior Engineering Manager and Head of Engineering, without saying which M number each carries. One Senior Engineering Manager posting asked for five or more years of managing engineers, over a group of ten to eighteen people.

Moving between the bands is a change of job, not a promotion. When M50 was removed, the managers in it were reportedly offered promotion to M60, a move into the engineering band at P50 or P60, or redundancy. A P50 engineer who wants to manage people is therefore aiming at M60, a bigger first management job than at companies that still have a single-team manager level.

How Atlassian Pay Works

Atlassian pays by where you live rather than by where your team sits. Its United States postings list base pay for three regions: Zone A is the San Francisco Bay Area, Zone B covers several other large metropolitan areas, and Zone C covers the rest of the country.

One Senior Software Engineer posting listed these base ranges:

Those are base figures, so stock and bonus are added on top. Reported total pay by level, from levels.fyi medians for the United States:

Those medians come from reported offers, not from Atlassian, and they move with the stock price. Check levels.fyi before an offer conversation.

India pay uses the same codes. levels.fyi reports medians near 45 lakh rupees at P30, 71 lakh at P40, 107 lakh at P50 and 189 lakh at P60, where a lakh is one hundred thousand rupees. Our answer on the full-time salary at Atlassian covers other roles.

How Atlassian Levels Compare to Google, Meta, and Amazon

Atlassian numbers are ten times Google's at the same stage, so divide by ten.

The senior row decides most offers. Atlassian P50, Google L5, Meta E5 and Amazon L6 are the same job under four different names.

Titles mislead people here: Atlassian calls P60 Principal, while Google and Meta call that scope Staff and keep Principal for a level two steps higher. For more, see the FAANG software engineer levels guide.

Frequently asked questions

What is P50 at Atlassian? P50 is Senior Engineer, the level most Atlassian engineers hold. A P50 owns an area and decides what gets built inside it. It is also widely reported as the terminal level.

What is the difference between P40 and P50 at Atlassian? Scope, not coding skill. A P40 owns a feature or a service, while a P50 owns a whole area and sets the plan for it. The pay step between them is large.

How many years of experience do you need for Atlassian P50? Usually six or more. levels.fyi reports a median of four to five years at P40, and P50 sits above that. The rounds set the level, so a candidate with ten years can still be offered P40.

What does P60 mean at Atlassian? P60 is Principal Engineer, the level most other large companies call Staff. Reaching it needs a calibration committee, and employees report that outside hiring into P60 is easier than promotion.

What are the M levels at Atlassian? M is the management scale, separate from the P scale for engineers. levels.fyi lists M60, M70, M80 and M90 for software engineering managers, with M60 as the entry level. Atlassian removed the earlier M50 level, which managed a single team.

How do you move from engineer to manager at Atlassian? You change bands rather than get promoted. A P50 engineer moves across into M60, reported to cover about twenty engineers. It works in reverse too: when M50 was removed, those managers were offered P50 or P60 roles.

If you are heading into an offer conversation, Grokking Tech Salary Negotiations covers the scripts for level and compensation negotiation.

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