Dropbox Engineering Career Framework

Promotion Guidelines

This chart summarizes our promotion guidelines. It captures:

• Expectations for typical velocity through the levels
• Expectations for the career level for ICs and managers: we expect all engineers to grow to have that level of impact or greater over time

Level	Typical time in level for ICs (years)	Typical time in level for managers (years)
L1	1.5-2	n/a
L2	2-3	n/a
L3	2-4	0-2*
L4	4+ We expect all engineers to grow to have L4-level impact or greater over time. L4 will be a career level for many engineers.	4+ We expect all engineering managers to grow to have L4-level impact or greater over time. L4 will be a career level for many engineers.
		*Manager time in L3 is shorter than IC because ICs transferring to management are expected to have already grown through much of the L3 level