[nbm]

Your job title/level/rank (“Principal Engineer”, “IC6”, ...) is what you’ve been deemed capable of (usually by doing it). But your role on a particular project is going to depend on what’s needed. Sometimes you’ll be the lead of the whole thing. Or the lead of a piece of it. Or just another contributor.

Some performance management systems are poorly designed to handle scenarios like this, admittedly.

[millstone]

Yeah agreed. Amazon expects everyone to follow their Leadership Principles but no team can succeed if everyone attempts to lead.