Clarifying the Architect’s Career Path

Many people erroneously believe that the only way to advance one’s career in software engineering past senior engineer is to become a manager. However, many companies offer parallel tracks that focus on honing your craft and widening your influence throughout the organization. This is the so called “architecture” track. Today, I wanted to clear up the roles you can expect to fill on your journey down the architect’s career path.

• Software Engineer I
• Software Engineer II
• Senior Software Engineer I
• Senior Software Engineer II
• Hypersenior Software Engineer
• Staff Software Engineer
• Master Codehand
• Distinguished Master Codehand
• Turing-Rank Champion Master Codehand
• Hyperturing Demietherial Codehand
• Lambda-Rank Etherial Codehand
• Principal Architect
• Senior Principal Architect
• Arch-Principal Architect
• Arch-Arch-Principal Architect
• Demisupreme Megaprincipal Architect
• Master Rank Demisupreme Megaprincipal Architect
• Full Supreme Gigaprincipal Architect
• [redacted rank]
• Semiformal Priest of Turing
• Formal Priest of Turing
• Multiformal Bishop of Turing
• Honorable Polyformal Archbishop of Turing
• Hilbert-Swayer, Diagonalizer of the Incomputable, Consul of the Subconstant, Megalambda Rank Hyperdeity, Holy Emperor of Computation
• Software Engineering Fellow