> tinycto://career-os/roles
Technical Roles Directory
Explore 16 core technical role architectures spanning software engineering, distributed systems, AI/ML, SRE, and executive CTO leadership.
Software Engineer
Designs, implements, and maintains robust software components, APIs, and user-facing applications.
Principal Software Engineer
Highest-tier individual contributor setting engineering excellence, cross-system boundaries, and high-leverage technical patterns.
Engineering Manager
People and delivery leader building high-performing engineering teams, coaching talent, and ensuring operational predictability.
Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
Executive leader accountable for overall technological vision, capital allocation, architecture, security, and engineering organization growth.
Software Architect
Defines architectural blueprints, integration contracts, modular boundaries, and non-functional guarantees across software ecosystems.
Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)
Applies software engineering principles to operations, governing availability, latency, incident mitigation, and automated capacity scaling.
DevSecOps Engineer
Embeds continuous security, vulnerability scanning, secret management, and compliance checks into automated CI/CD and cloud delivery pipelines.
Data Engineer
Architects and maintains scalable data ingestion pipelines, lakehouses, warehouse schemas, and streaming infrastructure for analytical and AI consumption.
AI Engineer
Bridges machine learning models with production software, operationalizing inference pipelines, evaluation harnesses, and ML model serving.
Generative AI Engineer
Engineers production systems powered by Large Language Models, fine-tuning, context management, prompt engineering, and safety guardrails.
RAG Engineer
Specializes in semantic search, vector databases, hybrid retrieval, chunking pipelines, and grounding generative AI responses with enterprise knowledge.
Agentic AI Engineer
Designs autonomous and semi-autonomous multi-agent workflows, tool execution loops, stateful reasoning graphs, and MCP integrations.
Cybersecurity Engineer
Protects enterprise systems against cyber threats, conducts penetration tests, architectures zero-trust boundaries, and responds to intrusions.
Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE)
Works on the front lines with enterprise customers to integrate, customize, and deploy complex software platforms into mission-critical environments.
Founding Engineer
The first or earliest engineer at an early-stage startup, architecting the 0-to-1 prototype, establishing initial dev stack, and iterating at maximum velocity.
AI Transformation Leader
Executive strategist steering traditional enterprises through AI adoption, workforce upskilling, model governance, and high-ROI operational automation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the 16 Gold Cohort roles in Career OS?
The 16 roles span individual contributor (IC) and engineering leadership paths: Software Engineer, Senior Software Engineer, Staff Engineer, Principal Engineer, Lead Architect, Engineering Manager, Director of Engineering, VP of Engineering, CTO, DevOps Engineer, Site Reliability Engineer (SRE), Platform Engineer, Cloud Architect, Data Engineer, Machine Learning Engineer, and Security Engineer.
How are role archetypes and competency bands defined?
Each role defines core responsibilities, 5 evaluation dimensions, technical competencies, target salary bands, and actionable promotion criteria derived from top-tier tech engineering leveling rubrics.
How do roles integrate with visa eligibility and compensation?
Each role is mapped to international occupational classifications (e.g. O*NET-SOC 15-1252.00, ESCO, and ISCO-08 2512 Software Developers), establishing direct links to statutory visa salary thresholds and localized market compensation percentiles.
AI Summary
The Roles Hub organizes 16 canonical engineering disciplines across Individual Contributor (IC) and Management ladders. Each role profile details statutory occupational codes, 5-dimensional competency rubrics, typical progression velocity, market salary distribution percentiles, and reciprocal mobility pathways.