Staff Levels at Large Companies

Here are the engineering levels between Senior and Principal at three large companies, as employees and level-comparison sites commonly report them:

At Google and Meta, a Principal engineer sits three levels above Senior. At Amazon, Principal is the very next level after Senior. The same word therefore names two quite different positions, and a candidate who compares titles alone will misjudge both.

This lesson explains what a level is, what the Staff levels at these three companies expect, and why every mapping between companies is approximate.

What a Level Is

A level is a company's written statement of the scope, independence, and impact it expects from an engineer, tied to a range of pay. A title is the label attached to a level, and the level is what the company uses to decide expectations, promotion, and compensation.

The expectations live in a document usually called a career ladder: one column per level, and one row per dimension, such as technical complexity, scope, influence, and the people the engineer develops. Promotion means showing, over a sustained period, the expectations of the next column. Most large companies keep their ladders internal, so what is known publicly comes from employees, recruiters, and sites such as levels.fyi. Every table in this lesson is therefore reported information, not an official definition.

Google: L6 and L7

At Google, L6 is the Staff Software Engineer level, and L7 is Senior Staff, with L8 as Principal. L5, Senior, is commonly described as a level where an engineer may stay for an entire career without pressure to be promoted. The step to L6 is therefore a change in kind, not a reward for time served.

The reported expectations follow the pattern from the first lesson. An L6 engineer leads work across several teams and sets technical direction for a product area. An L7 engineer carries that scope to an organization, with initiatives that last many quarters and cross organizational boundaries. L8 is described as technical leadership at the level of a whole product line or the company.

Meta: E6 and E7

Meta's ladder is commonly reported as E5 Senior, E6 Staff, E7 Senior Staff, and E8 Principal. Meta's engineers also use IC numbers that match the E numbers, so E6 and IC6 name the same level.

The reported scope rises in the same steps as at Google. An E6 engineer influences the work of multiple teams. An E7 engineer leads large programs that span teams and organizations. An E8 engineer's impact is expected to reach beyond the company, into an industry or a technology area. As at Google, E5 is commonly described as a level where engineers may stay without pressure to move up.

Amazon: L6 and L7

Amazon's software ladder is commonly reported as SDE I at L4, SDE II at L5, Senior SDE at L6, and Principal SDE at L7. Above those come Senior Principal at L8 and Distinguished Engineer at L10, with no L9 for engineers. Amazon has no Staff title. The step from Senior SDE to Principal SDE is a single promotion, and the Principal group is small relative to the number of Senior engineers.

Because of that single step, Amazon's L7 is the level that most Staff candidates target there. Reported comparisons place it anywhere from Google's L6 to Google's L7, and the sources disagree. The disagreement is a useful warning, not a defect in the sources: a level that covers the range of two levels elsewhere cannot map exactly onto either of them.

Notice that Google and Meta each have two levels in the band where Amazon has one. The dashed bracket marks the range of reported comparisons for Amazon's L7, not an exact position.

Scope by Level

Level definitions are easier to read against a single organization. Here they are applied to the marketplace from the first lesson, with its 400 engineers in 45 teams.

The scheduler project from the first lesson touched 26 teams, yet it is Staff work rather than Principal work. The engineer owned one problem across those teams for three quarters, while the teams kept ownership of their own jobs. Levels describe sustained ownership, not the number of teams one project happens to touch.

Notice that each level contains the one below it. A Staff engineer is still expected to do excellent work at the scope of one team, and the higher level adds a wider scope rather than replacing the narrower one.

Why Mappings Are Approximate

Four reasons make every cross-company mapping approximate:

• The ladders have different numbers of steps. Google and Meta place two levels between Senior and Principal, and Amazon places none.
• The same level means different scope at different company sizes. A Staff engineer at a company of 40,000 engineers may lead an area larger than the whole engineering department of a company with 400.
• Titles at smaller companies vary widely. A Staff engineer at a 60-person startup may own the technical direction of the whole product, or may be doing work that a large company would call Senior.
• Ladders change. Companies add, rename, and redefine levels, so a mapping from a few years ago may no longer hold.

The practical rule follows from all four: compare scope, not titles. Scope can be stated in numbers that mean the same thing everywhere, such as the number of teams and engineers affected, how long the engineer owned the work, and what changed as a result.

Using This in an Interview

Ask the recruiter early which level the interview loop is calibrated to, and whether the loop can result in an offer at a different level. Then describe your own experience in scope numbers rather than in your current title. "Staff engineer at a 60-person startup" tells an interviewer very little, while "technical lead for 3 teams and 22 engineers, responsible for checkout for two years" can be compared directly with a ladder. The lesson Describing Scope on a Resume and to Recruiters develops this in detail.

Expect two follow-up questions:

• "What level are you at today, and what is its scope?" Give the title, then the numbers: teams, engineers, duration, and results.
• "Why do you think you are ready for this level?" Point to sustained work at the next level's scope, not to years of experience.

Key Takeaways

• A level is a company's statement of expected scope, independence, and impact, tied to pay. A title is only its label.
• Google and Meta are commonly reported as L6 and E6 for Staff, and L7 and E7 for Senior Staff.
• Amazon has no Staff title. Its Principal SDE level, L7, is the usual target for Staff candidates there, and its mapping to other companies is disputed.
• Levels describe sustained ownership, not the number of teams that one project touches.
• Mappings between companies are approximate, so compare scope in numbers rather than titles.

The next lesson, Choosing Which Problems to Work On, turns from what Staff engineers are expected to own to how they decide what to take on.

Practice Questions

1. A candidate is a Principal SDE at Amazon and is offered a Staff role, L6, at Google. Is this necessarily a down-level?

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Not necessarily. Reported comparisons place Amazon's L7 anywhere from Google's L6 to Google's L7, because Amazon has one level in the band where Google has two. The candidate should compare the scope expected in each role, not the titles.

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2. Why is the scheduler project from the first lesson Staff work, even though it touched 26 teams?

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Because the engineer owned one problem across those teams, not the teams themselves. Levels describe sustained ownership. Principal scope at the marketplace would mean ownership across all of engineering over a long period.

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3. A candidate says, "I have been a Staff engineer for three years." What two pieces of information would make the statement useful to a hiring committee at a large company?

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The size of the company and the scope the candidate owned. Staff at a 60-person startup and Staff at a company of thousands can mean very different things. The number of teams and engineers affected, the duration, and the results make the scope comparable.

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4. What does it mean that each level "contains" the one below it?

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A higher level adds a wider scope without removing the expectations of the narrower one. A Staff engineer is still expected to deliver excellent work within one team, and is also expected to own work across several teams.

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