[barefoot]

A senior software developer can be given a vague contradictory notion of a a whole application (or part of one) and turn it into a scalable, performant, cost-effective beautiful product using the best set of tools and technologies to fit the job. They will deliver exactly what you had in mind within the estimated range provided before they even started.

In addition, they will do it while abstracting away all of the pain and complexity as part of that process, communicating only to provide accurate updates on progress and asking thoughtful probing questions. They make all of their work seem effortless in the process.

[NotSammyHagar]

That's a lot to ask of someone. If that is senior, what is a principal engineer? That's a whole different level in our vaguely defined informal software engineering world.

[zuhayeer]

We have a rough scope and impact for each level on our Standard at http://levels.fyi/standard

[barefoot]

I like these standard definitions, thanks for sharing.