Engineer Track

Progression of titles is not based on time, but rather experience and skill. A title represents where you are in your journey. To provide focus in skill development you should understand the expectations of someone performing at a particular title. Title progression is compounding; once you move to the next title, the expectations for all preceding titles come along.

Engineer Apprentice, Software

Take a task and work on it with someone else

An apprentice is a pre-professional level role. The expectations as you join your first team are that you can write, compile, and run simple programs from scratch. As an apprentice you will be focused on gaining experience with software engineering tooling (Git, Jira, etc.) and making contributions in the form of small, non-critical programming tasks and documentation.

Engineer I, Software

Developing as an engineer

As an Engineer I, you are in the early stage of developing as a software engineer. As such, your primary responsibility is to grow your skill set through meaningful experiences. The primary path to growth is by coding as much as possible while frequently seeking feedback and mentoring from those around you.

Adhere to best practices and processes, as defined by your team and the larger organization.
Understand and act according to your team’s and organization’s values and principles.
Participate in team activities and rituals by attending and contributing ideas, suggestions, and feedback.
Able to communicate with and accept feedback from other engineers, with a focus on increasing your knowledge base.
Accepts coaching and mentoring from other engineers and leaders.
Ability to work autonomously on small, well-defined tasks, while asking for help when needed and escalating blockers in a reasonable time frame.
Actively look to increase your knowledge and skill by seeking out relevant courses, conferences, books, and workshops.
Respond to customer issues and incidents in a proactive, timely fashion.
Have a basic understanding of the services that interact with the code you contribute to, and raise flags for changes that might affect your team’s services.

Engineer II, Software

Take a task and complete it independently.

As an Engineer II, you have progressed past needing constant mentoring to complete a task. Your base set of skills have grown such that you are now capable of taking parts of a project and working on it independently. If stuck, you are expected to proactively reach out for help.

Able to work on larger, feature-level tasks (mostly) independently, and can set and update expectations on size, scope, and timelines.
You have sufficient knowledge in one or more domains and/or features, and are able to provide guidance to others and participate in planning discussions that pertain to these areas of knowledge.
Provide constructive feedback through code reviews.
Consider performance matters and cleanliness of code during development.
Discover areas of improvements through identification of flaws, or areas where increased performance can be gained.
Demonstrate consistent dependability and professionalism.
_infra

Engineer III, Software

Take part of a project and work on it independently.

As an Engineer III, you have grown to the point where you can work on an entire project with little help. You may also exhibit deeper knowledge of a small part of the product you contribute to. You have developed to a point where you can take any part of a project and work on it with minimal assistance and mentoring.

Capable of working on project-sized tasks with minimal assistance, and can set and update expectations on size, scope, and timelines.
Have authority in more than one domain or feature, and demonstrate understanding of both technical and business impacts of your area of expertise.
Begin to contribute to the establishment of your team’s processes and best practices.
Capable of representing your team in cross-team meetings and discussions.
Demonstrate the ability to work cross-team as projects dictate.
Understand the impact of changes in your team’s domain/product, and collaborate on changes that will affect other teams.
Consider how code changes will affect end users and support personnel.
Understand the impact your work has on reliability and scaling.

Senior Engineer, Software

Take a whole project and complete it. Doesn’t mean they do all the coding but rather are able to plan and ensure the execution.

As a Senior Engineer, you have consistently demonstrated a mastery of building well-thought-out projects / products. You can work in a collaborative manner, and have begun honing your skill of mentoring others. At a Senior level, your mindset should begin to shift toward being a multiplier on a team. When planning and coordinating projects, you display foresight such that the work can be broken into smaller pieces for the rest of the team.

Able to work across your team’s entire code base, domain, or product. You understand the high level architecture of the product and can identify how a code change will affect it. Consistently consider how code changes will affect end users and support personnel, and proactively communicate those impacts.
Apply knowledge of reliability, scaling, quality, and performance during development.
Ability to assist with prioritization of projects within your domain, including negotiating scope and timeline of work with the Product teams. This extends to active participation in planning of projects.
Capable of leading technical efforts of larger projects, which includes, but is not limited to, the following:
- Plan and communicate the plan of how a project will be completed.
- Break the project into individual units of work and estimate timing.
- Own and communicate any changes in the plan.
- Proactively escalate blockers and scope changes.
- Track work assigned to other engineers who are working on the same project, and ensure its completion.
Actively advocate for coding standards and best practices across the team.
Provide regular mentorship, including one-on-one pairing and code walk-throughs for your team.
Demonstrate the ability to identify flaws, and suggest improvements, within your domain or product by providing regular, meaningful code reviews.
Understand and act according to your team’s and organization’s values and goals, as well as the strategic direction of the company at large. Actively consider how these values affect our work. Help mold team and organizational values.
Able to work and contribute with other teams, both inside and outside of the engineering group.
You are called upon regularly to share your understanding of your domain or product.
Capable of representing your team throughout the technical decision-making process (e.g. discovery meetings). You have the ability to collaborate with designers, quality assurance, project, and product managers
Assist with your team’s retention, recruiting, and interviewing process.
Consistently debug release pipeline and production service issues.
You are recognized as a thought leader by your peers, and consistently demonstrate self-awareness, resilience, and a high degree of emotional maturity.

Staff Engineer, Software

Demonstrate ownership of a full domain / product

As a Staff Engineer, you have mastered the ability to affect and own projects, and have begun scaling your scope to include entire domains. You understand at an intimate level how a domain / product fits into the larger system, and are capable of driving the strategy of the domain / product to derive value for the rest of engineering.

Recognized as a thought leader both internally and externally of your team.
Adequately establish yourself as a technical leader.
Proactively drive your team forward, technically.
Set an example for emotional maturity and growth.
Your contributions go beyond the sphere of your own team, and have begun to positively affect other team’s work.
Contribute to decisions determining adoption of languages and technologies within the organization.
May participate in industry trends or analysis through contribution to open source initiatives.
Actively contribute to and improve the engineering organization’s coding standards and best practices.
Suggest and build consensus for process improvements across the organization.
Understand and follow the strategic direction of the company.
Have a holistic view of the staffing needs of the technical organization and participate in recruiting, interviewing, and retention.

Senior Staff Engineer, Software

Ownership of several domains/products

As a Senior Staff Engineer, you have mastered multiple domains / products. In most cases, your ownership would encompass the entirety of your team’s domains and products. Your work is largely focused on driving the strategy of your team’s domains / products to create value.

Recognized as a thought leader by the broader organization.
Proactively look for ways to drive the organization forward.
Your work consistently extends beyond your team and contributes positively to external teams and parts of the organization..
May actively research and participate in industry trends or analysis through the submission of white papers or other authoritative reports.
Understand the architecture of other Jack Henry systems and implications to changes to Digital’s integrations with those systems.
Contribute to the management, planning, and coordination of cross-team initiatives that require coordination with vendors or other parties outside of Jack Henry Digital.
Identify dependencies between engineering teams, vendors, non-JHA Digital groups, and non-engineering stakeholders.
Identify needs for new engineering roles and participate in the hiring process for said roles.
May be called upon to work or communicate directly with engineering groups and customers outside of JHA Digital to resolve incidents.

Principal Engineer

Recognized as a company-wide subject matter expert in their Engineering discipline.

As a Principal Engineer, you provide, guide and use engineering and business concepts in developing resolution of critical issues. Applies extensive knowledge of theories, practices and design matters.

Leads the application of existing principles and guides development of new ideas.
Works on issues that impact operational success or addresses future concepts, products or technologies.
Solutions are devised based on limited information and require expert judgment and knowledge.
Implementation of solutions requires a longer term view which impacts strategic goals and objectives. Results impact multiple functions.
Exercises wide latitude in determining objectives and approaches to critical assignments.
Oversees quality control, conducts engineering studies and investigations, and prepares and reviews design reports, progress reports, and project completion reports for company management.
Monitors industry trends and issues.
Provides engineering guidance to other departments and helps train and mentor new engineers.
Creates formal networks with key decision makers and is widely recognized as expert and thought leader by both internal and external industry.
Serves as external spokesperson for the organization.

JH Corp Minimum Qualifications

Typically requires a bachelor’s degree and generally 15-plus years experience in a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience sufficient to successfully perform the essential functions of the job.
Promotion to this level requires committee review.

Principal Engineer, Senior

Recognized nationally as a subject matter expert (SME) in their Engineering discipline.

As a Senior Principal Engineer, you work on highly complex and visible projects and makes notable and substantial contributions to the company and industry.

Addresses future concepts, products, or technologies and exercises expert judgment and knowledge in determining objectives; selects methods, techniques and evaluation criteria to obtain solutions for critical assignments.
Oversees quality control, conducts engineering studies and investigations, and prepares and reviews design reports, progress reports, and project completion reports for company management.
Provides engineering guidance to other departments, and helps train new engineers.
Monitors industry trends and issues.
Creates formal networks with key decision makers and widely recognized as expert and thought leader nationally.
Participates in external speaking engagements at the national level.

JH Corp Minimum Qualifications

15-plus years experience in a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience sufficient to successfully perform the essential functions of the job.
Promotion to this level requires committee review.

Fellow Engineer

Recognized as a preeminent company and industry subject matter expert (SME) in their Engineering discipline.

As a Fellow Engineer, you are responsible for a major function in a business unit, a major focus area at corporate.

Works on highly complex and visible projects and makes notable and substantial contributions to the company and industry.
Establishes strategic plans for functions/areas owned based on corporate strategy.
Strategic decisions are critical to functional/area performance and have short and long-term impact.
Manages change and develops risk mitigation plans. Oversees quality control, conducts engineering studies and investigations, and prepares and reviews design reports, progress reports, and project completion reports for company management.
May consult with Board of Directors, as needed. Provides engineering guidance to other departments, and helps train new engineers.
Monitors industry trends and issues.
Consults and advises executive leadership.
Creates formal networks with key decision makers and widely recognized as expert and thought leader globally.
Participates in external speaking engagements at the global level.

JH Corp Minimum Qualifications

15-plus years experience in a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience sufficient to successfully perform the essential functions of the job.
Promotion to this level requires committee review.