[xenity7]

I’m engineering adjacent (analytics / data sci) but my experience has been the best engineers pitch and pick their own projects rather than being assigned out weeks in advance.

Just recently an engineering manager told me “I trust [IC7 engineer] to go where he is most impactful”

So this isn’t the only model, and successfully identifying and pitching working on high impact projects is a seniority marker that will lead to rapid promotion. In any organization. The pitch may look different in different places but I promise you - if an engineer is successfully pitching and delivering high impact projects promotion WILL follow.

Identifying and pitching high impact projects is a combo of technical and soft skills though, and the way this happens depends on the org.

[kridsdale1]

IME what you describe is considered a base expectation of L6 and above.