Career paths
How careers actually develop: what separates one level from the next, which lateral moves exist, and which skills support them.
| Path | Area | Steps | Published |
|---|---|---|---|
| Backend engineering From implementing services to deciding how the company’s systems talk to each other. | Technology | 5 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| DevOps and site reliability From automating deployments to answering for whether the system stays up. | Technology | 5 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Frontend engineering From building screens to defining how the whole company builds interfaces. | Technology | 6 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Infrastructure and networks The foundation everything else runs on. | Technology | 4 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Internal IT support From answering tickets to designing how the whole company works with its tools. | Technology | 5 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Mobile engineering Building and sustaining applications that live on somebody else’s phone. | Technology | 4 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Product management From executing a plan to deciding what gets built and what does not. | Technology | 5 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Quality assurance From finding defects to designing how they are prevented. | Technology | 4 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Solutions architecture Turning a business problem into a system somebody can build and keep running. | Technology | 3 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Data analytics From answering questions with data to deciding which questions are worth asking. | Data | 5 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Data science From fitting models to deciding whether a model was the right answer at all. | Data | 4 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Machine learning engineering Taking models to production and keeping them alive when the world shifts. | Data | 3 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Learning and development Making sure people learn what the company is going to need. | Human resources | 3 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| People and HR From administering processes to designing how the company works. | Human resources | 5 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Talent acquisition From filling vacancies to building the capability the company will need. | Human resources | 5 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Sales From opening conversations to answering for the company’s number. | Sales | 5 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Sales operations Making the commercial team able to sell: process, data, tools and quota. | Sales | 4 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Solutions engineering The technical person in a commercial conversation. | Sales | 3 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Brand and communications What the company says about itself, and what gets said about it. | Communications | 3 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Technical writing Making something complex usable without having to ask. | Communications | 3 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Customer success Making sure the customer gets what they bought, and stays. | Customer success | 4 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Customer technical support From answering a customer to changing the product so they never have to write in. | Customer success | 6 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Product design From drawing screens to deciding which problem gets solved. | Design | 4 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| User research Finding out what people need before it gets built. | Design | 3 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Finance operations Payables, receivables, payroll and treasury: the money that moves every day. | Finance | 6 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Financial planning and analysis From building the model to deciding where the company spends. | Finance | 4 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Corporate legal From reviewing contracts to deciding which risks the company takes. | Legal | 4 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Privacy and data protection A young function in Costa Rica, and increasingly asked for. | Legal | 2 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Digital marketing From running campaigns to deciding where it is worth showing up. | Marketing | 4 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Product marketing Explaining why a product matters, to the person who has to decide. | Marketing | 3 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Business operations The function that fixes what no other team claims as theirs. | Operations | 3 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| From manager to executive The management track once you already lead a team: what changes at each step, and what you stop doing. | Operations | 4 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Program management Several projects that only make sense together. | Program management | 3 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Project management From coordinating tasks to getting several teams to arrive at the same time. | Program management | 5 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Internal audit and compliance Checking that what the company says it does is what it does. | Accounting | 3 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Information security From watching alerts to deciding which risks the company accepts. | Cybersecurity | 5 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Facilities and workplace The building, the safety and the services that make the rest possible. | Facilities | 4 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
| Procurement and sourcing Deciding who the company buys from and on what terms. | Supply chain | 3 | Aug 16, 2026v1.0 |
How a path is built
- 1Initial draft, which may be proposed by AI and is always labeled as such
- 2Community review
- 3Industry review
- 4Academic review
- 5Approval and publication with version, evidence date and contributors
A ladder and a path are not the same
- A ladder and a path are not the same
- Career ladder: progression within one family and track.
- Career path: the broader graph, including lateral and adjacent transitions.