HR for Engineering Orgs
The HRBP playbook for supporting engineering teams — tech recruiting, leveling, comp benchmarking, dual ladders, on-call pay, hackathon ROI, and performance metrics that aren't lines-of-code.
For: HRBPs supporting eng, eng managers, CTOs, talent partners, comp & ben for tech
Tech recruiting deep dive: how engineering hiring actually works
What HRBPs and recruiters new to engineering must understand — sourcing channels engineers actually use, the realistic funnel math, how interview loops are…
Leveling for engineers: from L3 to L8 without the politics
How engineering levels actually work — what each level means, the scope/impact/autonomy rubric, the difference between L4 and L5 (the most contested…
Engineering comp benchmarking: how to actually price an engineer
The HRBP guide to engineering compensation — why generic Mercer/Radford data underprices senior engineers, the four datasets that matter (Levels.fyi, Radford…
Dual ladder design: an IC track that's actually equal to management
How to design and operate a real dual ladder — IC track parity, why most dual ladders are fake, the staff/principal/distinguished progression, how to handle…
On-call compensation: paying for the pager without breaking the budget
How modern engineering orgs pay for on-call — the four models (none, flat stipend, per-incident, productized), what each costs, the legal exposure of unpaid…
Hackathons and innovation time: measuring what actually pays back
Hackathons feel valuable; ROI is usually unmeasured. Here's the design — frequency, structure, success metric — that produces real product wins and retention…
Engineering performance metrics that aren't lines-of-code
The honest guide to measuring engineering performance — why LoC, commit count, and PR count are anti-metrics; the DORA four, SPACE framework, and DX Index…
The IC vs management dual ladder: making both paths real
Most companies say they have a dual ladder. Few actually do. Here's what 'real' looks like — equal pay, equal scope, equal status — and the four anti-patterns…
The engineering ladder rubric: levels, dimensions, and examples that hold up to scrutiny
Engineering ladders rot when they're too vague to differentiate adjacent levels or too rigid to apply across disciplines.