Our generalized levels serve as *guideposts, not exact requirements*. They’re meant to give insight into the skills and responsibilities that are typically needed to succeed at any given level.
Levels are spread across 3 core tracks:
| Individual contributors | are individuals with technical expertise who are focused on growing and honing their skills, leading by example, and helping to develop their peers. |
|---|---|
| People managers | are individuals with people development and leadership expertise who are focused on leading, developing, and effectively growing the team. They achieve goals through the work of others. |
| Executive leaders | are individuals with administrative or supervisory authority who are focused on the complete strategic direction and performance of the company. |
<aside> <img src="/icons/thought-dialogue_yellow.svg" alt="/icons/thought-dialogue_yellow.svg" width="40px" /> Q: How is my level determined? A: ****Your demonstrated experience, combined with the scope of influence and ownership of the role you’re being hired/moved into, helps to determine your level. Below is a breakdown of typical career phases, levels, & titles.
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| Career phase | Level | Level label (sometimes title) | IC Description | M Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Early career | IC2 | |||
| IC3 | Junior [X], | |||
| Mid [X] | You may still be early on in your career and/or field. You are less focused on impacting the entire team and more focused on developing your own skills. | |||
| Experienced | IC4 |
M1 | Senior [X]
[X] Team Lead | You are more experienced and confident in your domain. You’re more likely to be owning projects independently and be trusted to deliver with minimal oversight. You may gain your first direct report(s). | Provides direct supervision to individual contributors and held accountable to the output of their team. Identifies and scopes their team's work in partnership with functional leadership.
Owns a product area.
Leads team(s), typically consisting of 1 to 3 direct reports. | | Emerging leaders | IC5
M2 M3 | Staff [X]
[X] Manager [X] Senior Manager | You have a broader influence outside of your direct team and projects. You’ve built strong internal partnerships and may be leading multiple projects. You likely manage several direct reports or are the primary leader for an MUI product. | Manages individual contributors and potentially other managers.
Leads team(s) and projects that have tribe-level impact. Typically consisting of 3 to 7 direct reports, or even larger if necessary.
Impacts also teams outside of their direct leadership by either coaching other leads, collaborating with the teams on bigger projects or helping them achieve their goals. | | Leaders | IC6
M4 | Principal [X],
[X] Director, | You lead the work for a significant area and handle complex projects with overlapping organizational lines from start to finish. It is more likely that you will lead multiple teams. | Manages at least two or more teams or sub-teams via other managers. | | | M5 | [X] Senior Director | | Manages senior leaders who are responsible for the success of their scope.
Leads a tribe or a group of teams with large scope and organisational impact; direct reports typically consist almost entirely of M2, M3 and IC6. For example, leads one functional business unit within the company. | | Seasoned leaders | E1 E2 E3 | [X] VP, [X] SVP, [X] EVP, CXO | / | Follow ‣ |
<aside> <img src="/icons/thought-dialogue_yellow.svg" alt="/icons/thought-dialogue_yellow.svg" width="40px" /> Q: What skills and responsibilities are levels mapped against? A: We aspire to have tailored career ladders that identify required skills and responsibilities by function. In the meantime, we’ve taken a unified approach through the MUI Risers, explained below.
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The Risers are a tool for understanding possible career progression at MUI. They provide a clear structure of expected skills and behaviors for individuals across different functions and levels. They offer explanations and examples of performance standards, without being overly prescriptive.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19A3t6pF2waAvdUCfifSR7Tn1rM90R48Ybk9udkdh5LQ/edit?usp=sharing
The Risers are built on five categories — the performance dimensions every MUIer demonstrates in any role, at any level. One rule applies across the board: every rating points to concrete work from the review period — real examples, not general impressions. The level-by-level criteria live in the MUI Risers spreadsheet; this page defines the categories.
| What it means? | The depth of your functional skills and domain expertise, and the quality of work they produce. It's not just what you know; it's whether the work shows it: sound decisions, few surprises, quality others use as the reference. As you move from "guided" to "the go-to expert," you advance here. |
|---|---|
| Why it matters? | Craft is the foundation everything else compounds on. People who are excellent at their jobs can be trusted with harder problems, bigger scope, and more autonomy — which is exactly how MUI wants to work. |
| What it means? | What you ship, what it moves, and what you own without being asked. Including the why, picking the outcome that matters most for users — and the future: helping set a roadmap that wins. As your impact grows from finished tasks to shipped projects to results the company plans around, you advance here. |
|---|---|
| Why it matters? | Effort isn't the product; outcomes are. Users never experience our intentions; they experience what shipped and whether it made their day better. This category keeps us honest about the difference. |
| What it means? | How clearly you communicate and how effectively you partner, inside your team and across it. In a remote, async company, your writing is your presence: proposals people can act on, debates that actually move, and changing your mind visibly when someone brings a better argument. |
|---|---|
| Why it matters? | One person can achieve 10 times more than another — but it's very hard for a group to achieve 100 times more without tight coordination. At MUI that coordination happens mostly in writing, so clarity is leverage. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DG0LEjfSDhN/ |