Our Senior
Developer I

Impact level
Team

You are a strong craftsman and have proven yourself to be effective for the whole company. You are great at execution and show confidence when tackling tasks. You contribute to the development team innovation, start being an inspiration for others and bring a holistic perspective to the development process. You proactively share your knowledge. You understand and reflect business and user needs in your work, can run a project independently and set up/configure tools for it. You are also responsible for the deployment process and project’s overall technical success. You are aware of the bigger picture and the company culture and take decisions accordingly. You pick up the project tech lead role when needed: actively guiding the project team in terms of development, improving the process and liaising with the client. Furthermore, you consistently show exemplary behaviour and can mentor less experienced developers. For instance, you help other developers in defining their technical growth plan and support them in achieving the set tech growth objectives. You adapt to every situation and challenge and become more comfortable with discomfort. You participate in the recruitment process by reviewing candidates, leading the technical interview and help in defining the technical assignment. 

Required competence
levels for this position

Listening
3
Oral & Written expression
3
Timing
2
Sensitivity
3
Communication
Helping
3
Approachability
3
Adaptability
3
Feedback
3
Reliability
3
Empathy
3
Working with others
Growth Mindset
3
Knowledge
3
Quality Orientation
3
Craftsmanship
Planning & Organisation
3
Creative problem solving
3
Pragmatism
3
Resilience
3
Commercial Awareness
2
Effectiveness
People Management
-
Process Management
1
Strategic Thinking
-
Self Leadership
1
Leadership

Core competence
expectations

Communication
Listening
3

1) Listens to others actively and grasps the bigger context.
In meetings you pro-actively steer towards agreements.
You summarise and clarify complex and sensitive messages so that the agreements are clear for everyone.
You make people feel heard and understood.

Oral & Written Expression
3

1) Can organize communication towards a clear goal.
When sharing information, you stress major points and clarify goal and purpose.
You follow a logical sequence in speech or when writing, making your overall point easy to understand. 2) Is persuasive when needed.
You use the right language to convince others of your ideas.
3) Can confront others in a constructive and respectful manner.

Timing
2

1) Communicates relevant actions in a timely manner.  
You raise concerns about your project in a timely manner.

Sensitivity
3

1) Is sensitive to non-verbal and verbal signals, chooses appropriate verbal and behavioural response even in unexpected and difficult situations.
2) Considers impact and consequences in their communication.
You choose your words carefully before speaking up.
You create space for the other person to digest the message if needed. 3) Is aware of the energy level of others while in meetings.
When you see someone in a meeting that doesn’t seem to be actively involved, you check in with them later to ask how they are doing.
You read the room and know when to stop a meeting.

Working with others
Helping
3

1) Establishes a culture of proactive cooperation.
You propose pair programming sessions.
You encourage colleagues to contribute to organisation wide initiatives such as hackathon, all hands and so on.
You set an example by volunteering to review candidates’ assignments during recruitment.  2) Actively contributes to resolving conflict.
You notice that your team is struggling with the client for a while now, you propose to involve the team lead or another relevant party to help you resolve the conflict.

Approachability
3

1) Is approachable and makes others feel comfortable to discuss anything. You create space for people to approach you and discuss (personal) situations that may impact their work.

Adaptability
3

1) Encourages and enables adaptability within the team.
Generally, you embrace positive change and show contagious enthusiasm for initiatives that benefit the team/company.
2) Understands the requirements of different situations and effectively adapts their behaviour even when under stress and pressure.

Feedback
3

1) Gives constructive and timely feedback to the colleagues/team.
You can identify challenges for the team and help improve the way of working by giving them adequate feedback.
You give timely feedback on performance.
You recognise your colleague’s efforts and progress.
You give valuable insights on how to strengthen a certain skill.
When you notice that your team-members’ behaviour is not in line with company values, you raise your concerns and give specific examples and alternatives for adapting the behaviour. 2) Constructs a follow-up plan based on received feedback and ensures its implementation.
When the follow up plan has proven ineffective, you are able to stay critical and remind yourself of the initial goal.
When others receive feedback to improve on something, you can help them in defining the follow up plan.
In team retrospectives, you make sure that there is a follow up plan to achieve the improvements. 3) Gives constructive feedback towards the company and management.

Reliability
3

1) Stands up and supports others even in the face of resistance or challenge.
2) Shows exemplary behaviour in recognising others' credit and contribution.

Empathy
3

1) Shows genuine interest in others’ success and promotes and showcases their abilities.
2) Encourages and facilitates inclusive behaviour in the team.
3) Addresses suspected dissatisfaction and unexpressed emotions.
4) Anticipates and addresses possible responses to their own behaviour, actions and remarks.

Craftsmanship
Growth mindset
3

1) Actively stays up to date with the latest developments in the field.
You have a subscription to certain newsletters or have certain websites bookmarked that often discuss relevant developments in your field.
You try to set some time aside to read articles, investigate new technologies.
You make time to experiment with new developments. 2) Actively shares knowledge with more than the people they are closely working with.
You initiate a meeting within your team (e.g., Elements’ Backend Developers, HR team, etc.) to discuss relevant new developments and share knowledge.
You came across an interesting work-related article/video online, you share it with those that might be interested via slack. 3) Identifies areas for improving company products and volunteers to work on it.
4) Experiments with new developments and proposes interesting findings as well as practical implementations (for instance, to improve the WoW) to the direct team.
You give a lightning talk or presentation during the All-Hands. You write a blogpost with your findings.
 5) Notices when an opportunity arises and acts upon it.
6) Inspires and facilitates others to grow.
You delegate tasks and responsibilities pro-actively, even if it might go wrong, because you know it will create a great learning experience.
You encourage your colleagues to visit relevant conferences. 7) Encourages a culture of safe learning by allowing mistakes and inspiring creativity and risk-taking attitude.

Knowledge
3

1) Masters various aspects of their work.
2) Shows passion, inspires and is a reliable source for advice, an example to others.
You are the go-to person in the team when there are questions related to your field.

Quality orientation
3

1) Creates great quality output independently.
2) Reviews the quality of other people’s work.
Provides insightful remarks during PRs and encourages team reviews.
3) Can review team’s overall work quality and suggests high-level effective improvements.
During a project implementation, you take a step back to see if the work is still on the right track and if it will still meet the desired quality standards.
4) Can make suggestions to improve the overall work quality at Elements.
When you see that the skeleton project is no longer up to date, you suggest relevant changes.”

Effectiveness
Planning & Organising
3

1) Defines the project/work goals and is unafraid to challenge and adapt it.
2) Can oversee the project planning and adjusts it when necessary.
Your planning reflects team members on-boarding and handovers.
You check EMIS to see the planning for your project and the team. 3) Can delegate in such a way that goals are achieved.

Creative problem-solving
3

1) Can break down complex problems into manageable components.
You are the go-to person when a problem arises.
2) Can find solutions in complex situations, weighing the solution against the impact and resources.  

Pragmatism
3

1) Considers the cost of time and takes high level decisions accordingly without heavily compromising the quality.
You recognise the value of time and know when something is good enough to deliver it and work on something else.
You can take the right decisions to meet a deadline without heavily compromising the quality of your craft.

Resilience 
3

1) Foresees that they'll need time to recover from difficulties.
2) Knows how to recover from difficult times.
3) Recognises which difficulties are preventable and takes action to prevent them. 
You can say “no” to requested tasks if you see you'll be overloaded, you discuss this openly.  
4) Brings positive energy and stays optimistic even when the situation is challenging. 

Commercial awareness
2

1) Can spot commercial opportunities within the current project and knows how to act upon them.
You recognize opportunities to inform clients of the ways Elements could help them to improve their product.
You provide options for the customer, always keeping a focus on what can be achieved (or has been achieved) rather than what we can’t do or haven’t finished. You listen, understand, respond and provide solutions to customers that makes it easy for them to do business with you.
You are not only a developer but also a problem solver for the client. 2) Has a high-level understanding of the digital agency market and knows what we as Elements have to offer in that market.
You can identify the kind of digital products we work on or could work on.
You are honest about the limitations of our services and refer the client elsewhere if needed. 3) Gets to know our clients and their market.
You listen carefully and make sure the client feels heard and important.
You investigate the market that the client operates in to get a general idea of what is at play.
You gain the clients trust and respect.
You are aware of the clients' goals for the project and every now and then you anticipate on how to fulfil their needs.

Secondary competence
expectations

Leadership

Leadership at Elements is about setting an example and being an inspiration. It’s about living the company values. Leaders at Elements are self-aware and understand how their behaviour impacts others. They take a step back and consider the bigger picture, act according to the company vision and play to their strengths to be effective in guiding teams. Leaders are thinking strategically but also very pragmatically to help move the company, teams and individual team members forward while considering both human and business factors.  

Key Sub-competences
Self-leadership, People Management, Process Management, Strategic thinking

Self-leadership
1

1) Requests feedback from the team and other colleagues about their own leadership skills and tries to learn from it.
2) Is aware of their strengths and can use them to everyone’s benefit.
3) Is aware of their pitfalls and is unafraid to admit them.
4) Is aware of the impact their words and actions may have on others and prepares for delicate situations in advance.
5) Is in control of their own self development and understands the steps they need to take to feel fulfilled.
6) Is guided by ethical principles and shows integrity.
7) Builds trust through straightforwardness and consistency.
8) Is an independent thinker and does not jump to conclusions impulsively. You stay calm, take a step back to consider all aspects and consequences before you draw a conclusion.

Process Management
1

1) Helps their project team understand what is expected from everyone.
You can take a tech lead role in a project (mostly applicable to Senior Developers in specific projects)
You support other developers and liaise with a client and Project Manager to determine project’s high-level technical approach and its implementation.  2) Understands how companies work and can establish adequate processes and perform within the given organisational structure.
3) Understands the added value of processes and can both defend and question them when needed.
4) Helps the project team in client relationship and keeps clients’ needs in mind in the day-to-day processes.

Take control of your career path.

These definitions and behavioural examples must not be seen as a checklist, they are intended to serve you as a solid reference point to (1) take control of your professional path, (2) to assess your colleagues’ professional contribution and (3) recruit new teammates.