EDIT: I just wanted to add an edit and say I really appreciate how active this post got. I was kind of expecting to get no responses, but instead I’m getting an incredibly detailed discussion with a wide range of viewpoints and considerations that I wouldn’t have otherwise thought of. You guys rock! Lemmy rocks!
Hey, all
I need help identifying a job title that would best match my current job responsibilities. For reference, I work at a smaller org that just had a compensation study done and my position was marked as needing no change. My supervisor was angry with that outcome and found out that it is because my actual Job Title is not an industry standard, so the company that did the study had trouble matching it up. My supervisor believes I should be making a fair chunk more than I make, as I am the sole person in my position and the work I do keeps the org running in all ways.
So, my supervisor is starting the process to reclassify me into new position and wants to make sure the title and responsibilities match up in a way that are recognizable on a resume to other potential employers. I’ve done some initial research and I believe that “Senior DevOps Engineer” or a flat “Senior Software Engineer” would probably be the best match.
A list of my responsibilities are:
- I investigate, troubleshoot, code, schedule, and deploy new custom programming releases to our ERP software. It’s a delivered ERP software that has the ability to create, package, and deploy custom coding in order to add functionality that the org needs but the delivered solution does not support. Our org is especially heavily customized - we have well over 200 different customization’s that I support
- I code, deploy, and support data integrations with third party vendors via SFTP, HTTP API, or other options (although most of the integrations come down to either pulling data from our system to push to an SFTP server or an API).
- I build and deploy custom applications on an ad hoc basis to fill needs by our org. An example of this would be that earlier this year we found out that the budget entry portion of our ERP software wasn’t available as it used a user interface that had reached end-of-life and we needed a way for departments to enter their budgets for the upcoming FY to buy time until we could get the proper user interface up and running. I was able to build a web application that could fulfill the requirements and coordinated with our systems administration team to get a server set up with certs, a proper domain name, and the like.
- I act as a general administrator for our ERP software, providing support and guidance on specific functions that members of our Org use as well as backing up our actual ERP Technical Administrator in maintenance tasks if he is sick or out.
- I support the deployment of data from our transactional ERP system to a reporting database and our reporting software. This is largely automated and works without interference. If new data is needed, I go in and make the necessary changes to include the new data in the reporting database.
- We don’t currently have any other developers, but my boss and I have started pushing to expand our slate as other members of our team retire. If we ever do get more developers, it will be my responsibility to train them and coordinate their tasks.
In general, I feel like I identify more as a Senior Software Engineer. I like the programming work more and, if I ever left this current org, it’s the job I would go for. However, for the sake of actually matching the position, I feel like the wide range of development, administrative, and automation duties, that I am more doing the job of a DevOps Engineer.
I’ve done a fair amount of reading, but I wanted to get the opinions of some peers and see if you all had any insights or opinions
I used to be in a relatively similar position years ago so I totally relate to what you’ve got to do on a daily basis.
These are the the titles that come to my mind (leaving ths seniority level up to you):
These are some good considerations.
The “Senior” piece felt weird since, while I am responsible for 100% of the programming and coordination of tasks, I don’t really oversee or help train or guide any other developers. I think the main reason that Senior was considered to be put on the title was to ensure that HR doesn’t try and under-value the position again - as our org would run into some major crises if this position is ever left empty for longer than a week or two.
Senior and Principal don’t necessarily have to be managerial. They are often used for individual contributors as well and are just a way to denote you have more experience and expertise in your field.
I did not know that! I was really getting hung up on the “not having any non-seniors” point.
I second this. I lead a team of engineers, and to us the main dividing line between senior and not senior is if you’re able to take on a project and lead it autonomously. I.e., you’ve gone past the stage where all you do is take on the next ticket in your task tracker; you have an awareness and understanding of the bigger picture, which allows you to create tickets on your own and select the most appropriate thing to work on next. The lead (me) is still there to help prioritize, fetch requirements, unblock things, etc, but it’s fairly light touch management.
(Edit: my job title is Principal Software Engineer)