Dropbox Engineering Career Framework

M7 Senior Engineering Director

I deliver results against either a portfolio of strategic company level business objectives (or keys component of the EPD mission) or a single strategic objective with significant complexity

Scope Area of ownership and level of autonomy / ambiguity

• I am fully accountable for delivering results against a portfolio of strategic objectives directly supporting company or EPD level business objectives over a two to three year time horizon.
• I am able to masterfully guide my org to impactful outcomes in the face of significant organizational, strategic and technical ambiguity, misalignment and change.

Collaborative Reach Organizational reach and extent of influence

• I substantially impact the way engineering as a whole functions and influence partner functions through organizational, people, and process insights and initiatives in complex situations.
• I anticipate challenges for and influence the direction of EPD as a whole even when faced with significant misalignment.

Impact Levers Organizational levers typically exercised to achieve business impact

• I hold myself and the managers reporting to me accountable for delivering direct business, and customer impact through effectively structuring, and managing a complex engineering organization
• In collaboration with cross-functional partners, VPs, and Directors, I define and motivate the strategic objectives against which my reports will operate
• In addition to driving the full talent lifecycle of my org, I am a champion for high-performance culture across the company and generate excitement for delivering on business outcomes

🏆 Results

Impact

• I drive the most important long-term priorities for the company that create the highest value for my customer
• I know when to shut down company-wide initiatives that don't create value and how to re-structure my org's roles and goals
• I know which levers to pull to drive meaningful results, and consider company-wide implications of my team's work
• My teams plan for and executes on either a portfolio of strategic objectives or a single strategic objective with significant complexity

Ownership

• I have a sense of responsibility, and obligation to act on opportunities I see across the company
• I hold those reporting to me accountable for delivering the results needed by the organization and ensure that investments are appropriately prioritized across my portfolio of objectives

Decision Making

• I act thoughtfully, and decisively in critical situations even when making challenging or unpopular decisions

Operational Excellence

• I ensure the right balance of operational excellence, innovation, and speed across teams against company-level goals
• I am skillful in detecting, and addressing the situations where my personal attention is required while otherwise allowing my Directors to own their strategic objectives

🌟 Direction

Agility

• I drive transformation for the company, help other leaders champion change, and generate excitement for change across Dropbox

Innovation

• I push boundaries, and generate ideas—even if they are risky—that drive the greatest company-wide impact
• I create an environment that fosters innovation and helps Dropboxers take smart risks, own the outcomes, and learn from failures. I define strategic objectives that provide space to develop bold new ideas

Strategy

• I deeply understand what is happening in the business and in the market. I use this understanding to collaborate with my cross-functional partners, VP, and Directors to define a long-term vision for my org/EPD
• I anticipate challenges for, and influence the direction of my teams or org, even when faced with significant misalignment, to execute work toward that vision

🌳 Talent

Personal Growth

• I proactively ask for feedback from those I work with and have self-awareness about my strengths, and take actions on my development areas
• I drive discussions with my manager about aspirational goals, and seek out opportunities to learn and grow
• I invest time in being a better manager and leader

Hiring and Talent Development

• I attract senior and diverse talent across a broad range of backgrounds, experiences, locations to Dropbox and have strong followership across the company
• I am actively involved in interviewing and assessing executive leadership candidates. I look holistically at our hiring processes/standards and help drive improvements
• I actively identify and prioritize areas of investment to improve processes, people experiences, and technologies across the company.
• I create long-term initiatives accordingly and lead or put leaders in charge of these initiatives and oversee their planning, execution.
• I take a holistic approach to talent engagement, and retention across my teams/org
• I champion a high-performance culture across the company, create an environment for continuous growth and development, and identify career opportunities for Dropboxers across teams
• I am an expert at both hiring and growing Directors, and I know what great looks like across all of the Core Responsibilities
• In addition to executing the responsibilities of a direct manager and leader of my organization effectively, I operate against the long term talent needs of the engineering function as a whole

Organizational Design

• I have a clear succession plan, and build a strong bench that sets my team up for success in the future for key roles on my team with a long-term view
• I invest in developing a pipeline of future leaders for Dropbox
• I help prioritize, and structure the engineering organization to successfully execute against a portfolio of investments
• I give my Directors scope to drive the talent lifecycle for their groups, and know when I need to step in and go deep

🌈 Culture

Collaboration

• I remove barriers to collaboration across Dropbox
• I influence, and build relationships with leaders across the company while expertly navigating organizational dynamics

Organizational Health

• I sponsor community-building efforts and inclusion initiatives
• I drive engineering or org-wide efforts to ensure a consistent and strong culture while keeping in mind org-wide culture, diversity, equity, and inclusion
• I am capable of debugging, and addressing even the gnarliest organizational health issues
• I practice vigilance in surfacing cultural issues that might not be explicitly raised to me. I proactively solicit feedback from my team on culture and leverage tools at hand (e.g. Pulse, Soapbox) to gain deeper insight into my team
• When I become aware of any lapse in my team’s culture, I communicate and work with my leadership team follow through on plans to correct and prevent recurrence of the lapse
• I practice the Dropbox Diversity Commitments on a regular basis

Communication

• I communicate complex, challenging, or unpopular ideas with poise and conviction, and gain commitment from others
• I engage in executive-level communications and represent Dropbox effectively in external forums

Culture Leader

• I create an environment of psychological safety to support connection, empathy, and healthy conflict
• I shape Dropbox's culture and personify Dropbox core values. I work to elevate existing standards while coaching my other reports on how to do the same
• I help orgs foster relationships across Dropbox, creating connection and inclusion across different orgs at Dropbox

🦉 Craft

Business Acumen

• I help inform Dropbox’s business, and product by staying current on our customers, and competitive market
• I develop my own informed opinions on how Dropbox should leverage or guard against industry and market trends
• I engage in listening sessions (All Hands, Quarterly Business Updates, etc.) to increase my learning and guide organization's priorities
• I have a working knowledge of Dropbox’s org/team structure and how teams work together across Dropbox

Architecture Design

• I’m capable of reviewing the overall health and engineering quality of a system or collection of features - including requiring regular health reviews, reviewing key metrics, test strategy and ensuring that the health and maintenance of my organization's systems

Technical Strategy

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