Fill in the fields below, then save as PDF or print at A2 landscape.
Role
Graduate Platform Engineer
Level 1
Unsatisfactory
Low
Individual
Impact
Fails to complete assigned infrastructure tasks even with close supervision and repeated guidance from senior engineers.
Applies Terraform or Kubernetes configuration changes without going through the team's review process, creating unreviewed changes in shared environments.
Does not raise blockers when stuck, allowing infrastructure work to stall for days without visibility to the team.
Examples
Assigned a well-scoped Terraform task with a working example; delivered nothing after two sprints despite daily stand-ups.
Applied a configuration change directly to a shared namespace without a PR, bypassing the team's review gate.
Dampeners
Was given unclear onboarding with no buddy, no structured pairing plan, and no access to internal runbooks.
Assigned tasks requiring cloud platform knowledge significantly beyond their current skill level without scaffolding.
Progression Signal
Begins raising blockers within a reasonable timeframe rather than silently stalling.
Completes at least one small, well-scoped infrastructure task end-to-end with guidance.
Business Impact
Impact
Senior engineers spend significant time unblocking or redoing work, reducing team capacity for platform delivery.
Unreviewed configuration changes create reliability risk and erode the team's change safety discipline.
Examples
A senior engineer spent a full day reverting and correcting an unreviewed Kubernetes namespace change.
Dampeners
Impact is limited given the scope of work assigned; patterns may reflect an onboarding failure rather than a capability gap.
Progression Signal
Work begins completing within agreed scope without requiring rework, reducing overhead on senior engineers.
Mid
Individual
Impact
Completes some tasks but with frequent errors in IaC or pipeline configuration requiring correction by a senior engineer.
Struggles to follow the team's infrastructure conventions - variable naming, module structure, tagging - despite clear examples being available.
Shows limited engagement in team ceremonies; attends stand-ups but does not flag blockers or share progress.
Examples
Submitted Terraform PRs consistently missing required resource tags despite it being a stated team standard.
Attended stand-ups for two weeks without flagging a blocker that had been blocking their task for three days.
Dampeners
Recently joined; early patterns may not yet be representative of trajectory or long-term capability.
Progression Signal
Begins following the team's IaC conventions with prompting and a checklist.
Starts flagging blockers in stand-up rather than waiting for someone to ask directly.
Business Impact
Impact
Rework and correction overhead falls on senior engineers, slowing the team's platform delivery throughput.
Inconsistent IaC quality contributes to technical debt in the platform codebase.
Examples
Three Terraform PRs in one sprint required full rewrites by the reviewing engineer before they could be merged.
Dampeners
Business impact remains low given task scope; the cost is primarily senior engineer time.
Progression Signal
Rework rate drops; PRs begin landing without major corrections after the first review round.
High
Individual
Impact
Consistently resistant to feedback; repeats the same infrastructure mistakes - missing encryption settings, overly permissive IAM - across consecutive reviews.
Does not engage with learning resources, runbooks, or the development plan agreed with their mentor.
Creates a negative dynamic through disengagement or dismissiveness during pairing sessions with senior engineers.
Examples
Received the same IAM least-privilege review comment five times across consecutive PRs with no change in approach.
Declined pairing sessions offered by the team's senior platform engineer on three separate occasions.
Dampeners
External factors - personal circumstances, mental health - may be contributing to the pattern of disengagement.
Progression Signal
Engages constructively with feedback at least once and shows willingness to change approach.
Business Impact
Impact
Sustained disruption begins to affect team morale and the team's ability to maintain change safety discipline.
Ongoing intervention from senior engineers diverts attention from platform delivery work.
Examples
Senior platform engineer spent 20% of their week over a month managing and correcting this individual's IaC output.
Dampeners
Scope of impact is limited to team level; no production infrastructure has been affected.
Progression Signal
Senior engineer time required drops as individual begins to self-manage basic infrastructure tasks within agreed scope.
Level 2
Development Needed
Low
Individual
Impact
Completes small, clearly scoped infrastructure tasks but requires step-by-step guidance on each one.
IaC quality is inconsistent - resource tags missing, hardcoded values present, module conventions not followed.
Does not yet flag blockers proactively; waits to be asked directly in stand-up.
Examples
Completed a Terraform resource block with close support but could not adapt the same pattern to a second resource independently.
Missed adding required encryption configuration that was documented in the team's IaC standards guide.
Dampeners
Only three months into their first professional platform engineering role with no prior cloud exposure.
Progression Signal
Begins completing similar infrastructure tasks with less prompting after seeing the pattern once or twice.
Business Impact
Impact
Work requires review and correction overhead higher than expected, given the scope of tasks assigned.
Team must account for close dependency in sprint planning; tasks cannot be picked up independently.
Examples
Each Terraform ticket averaged two rounds of review comments before it could be safely merged.
Dampeners
Typical for early tenure in a platform engineering role; investment now is expected to yield returns within two to three months.
Progression Signal
Review round count begins to drop as IaC quality improves and conventions are internalised.
Mid
Individual
Impact
Delivers assigned work but struggles to connect what they are doing to the broader platform architecture or developer experience.
Questions are sometimes repetitive, suggesting limited retention of explanations given during pairing sessions.
Feedback from code reviews is acted on in the immediate PR but not carried forward to subsequent work.
Examples
Asked the same question about Kubernetes namespace conventions on three separate occasions over two weeks.
Fixed a Terraform state management issue in the current PR but introduced the same issue in the next one.
Dampeners
Complex cloud toolchain and unfamiliar IaC patterns may be contributing to retention difficulty early in tenure.
Progression Signal
Starts asking follow-up questions that demonstrate understanding of the underlying concept, not just the immediate fix.
Business Impact
Impact
Repeated explanations consume mentor and senior engineer time that could be directed at higher-value platform work.
Low carry-forward from feedback slows the pace of quality improvement across the graduate's output.
Examples
Mentor averaged 45 minutes per day in reactive support over a four-week period rather than structured development sessions.
Dampeners
Mentorship investment is expected at this level; the question is whether progress is occurring at a reasonable rate.
Progression Signal
Reactive support time drops as IaC patterns and cloud concepts begin to stick across multiple pieces of work.
High
Individual
Impact
Delivers work but shows a pattern of avoiding unfamiliar cloud or Kubernetes territory rather than exploring it with support.
Does not seek stretch opportunities and defaults to the minimum required within each ticket.
Feedback is accepted passively but rarely internalised into changed behaviour or improved craft.
Examples
Consistently picks the smallest, most familiar tickets in sprint planning and avoids anything involving Kubernetes or observability.
Acknowledged all IaC review feedback as 'noted' but the same issues recurred across three sprints.
Dampeners
May be lacking confidence in the platform toolchain rather than motivation; requires a different style of support.
Progression Signal
Picks up one unfamiliar platform task and completes it with structured pairing support.
Business Impact
Impact
Growth trajectory is below expectation for tenure, creating uncertainty about the return on mentorship investment.
Limited stretch means the graduate is not building the breadth in CI/CD, Kubernetes, and IaC needed to become more self-sufficient.
Examples
Six months in and still requires the same level of guidance as at month two on routine Terraform tasks.
Dampeners
Business impact is low; risk is in longer-term return on investment and role suitability.
Progression Signal
Takes on and completes a moderately complex Terraform or pipeline task with less support than before.
Level 3
Consistently Delivers
Low
Individual
Impact
Completes well-scoped infrastructure tasks reliably with minimal rework after the first review round.
Follows the team's IaC conventions and CI/CD pipeline standards without needing reminders.
Asks good questions about cloud concepts and platform patterns - focused, contextual, showing prior effort to investigate.
Examples
Delivered three Terraform resource tickets in one sprint to the expected standard, each merging after a single review round.
Before asking for help on a Kubernetes manifest issue, documented what they had tried - saving senior engineer time.
Dampeners
Work is still scoped and structured by others; independence is emerging but not yet established across the breadth of platform tasks.
Progression Signal
Begins suggesting approaches to infrastructure problems before being told, showing developing initiative.
Business Impact
Impact
Contributes reliably to sprint velocity within the scope of their assigned platform work.
Senior engineer mentorship overhead is reducing to a sustainable level, freeing capacity for higher-complexity work.
Examples
Delivered 100% of assigned infrastructure tickets in three consecutive sprints without requiring rework.
Dampeners
Contribution scope is still narrow; business impact is within the immediate team.
Progression Signal
Scope of reliable contribution begins to expand incrementally to include CI/CD and observability tasks.
Mid
Individual
Impact
Reliably delivers assigned work and is starting to contribute ideas in platform design discussions.
Actively participates in Terraform and Kubernetes code reviews - asks clarifying questions and learns from feedback.
Shows good learning habits - revisits cloud documentation, follows up on review feedback patterns, explores sandbox environments.
Examples
Spotted a missing encryption setting in a teammate's Terraform PR and raised it constructively with supporting documentation.
Completed a self-directed learning goal on Kubernetes pod scheduling and applied the knowledge in their next ticket.
Dampeners
Still dependent on well-scoped tickets; does not yet initiate scope definition or propose improvements independently.
Progression Signal
Starts breaking down infrastructure tasks independently rather than waiting for them to be fully defined upfront.
Business Impact
Impact
Reliable contributor whose platform work lands consistently, improving team predictability in sprint delivery.
Growing engagement in IaC reviews adds value beyond their own tickets.
Examples
Caught two IAM security issues in peer reviews across the sprint that would otherwise have reached production.
Dampeners
Impact still primarily within the team; limited cross-team or platform-wide contribution.
Progression Signal
Begins contributing to decisions that affect platform components beyond their immediate ticket.
High
Individual
Impact
Delivers reliably and is beginning to self-direct learning toward gaps in their Kubernetes and observability knowledge.
Seeks out stretch tasks in CI/CD and IaC design and handles them with appropriate pairing support.
Feedback from reviews is internalised quickly and visibly improves IaC quality and convention adherence over time.
Examples
Identified a gap in their understanding of Terraform state management, worked through it independently, and applied it in the following sprint.
Volunteered to pick up an unfamiliar Helm chart task and delivered it successfully with one pairing session.
Dampeners
Still operating within defined scope; is not yet driving technical decisions or proposing platform improvements.
Progression Signal
Begins contributing a technical perspective in sprint planning or platform architecture discussions.
Business Impact
Impact
Reliable delivery and growing independence reduce mentorship overhead on senior platform engineers.
Self-directed growth means the investment in this graduate is beginning to compound in terms of team capacity.
Examples
Senior engineer noted they spent half the mentoring time compared to the previous quarter, freeing capacity for architecture work.
Dampeners
Business impact still limited to team scope; contribution to cross-team platform value not yet established.
Progression Signal
Contributes value extending beyond their own tickets to broader platform quality or documentation improvement.
Level 4
Leading
Low
Individual
Impact
Delivers reliably and begins to support other graduates or newer joiners informally on IaC and pipeline patterns.
Contributes meaningfully to platform technical discussions, offering perspectives backed by documentation or prior investigation.
Takes ownership of small platform workstreams without needing the scope fully defined upfront.
Examples
Helped a new graduate through a Terraform plan/apply debugging session without being asked.
Proposed a cleaner Kubernetes manifest structure in sprint planning and implemented the improvement themselves.
Dampeners
Leadership is informal and emerging; not yet a consistent multiplier on platform team output.
Progression Signal
Is sought out by peers for help with IaC or Kubernetes questions, signalling growing credibility.
Business Impact
Impact
Beginning to have a multiplier effect - delivery and behaviours begin to lift the output of those around them.
Reduced dependency on senior engineers for graduate support creates bandwidth for deeper platform work.
Examples
Handled new-joiner IaC onboarding questions for two weeks, freeing senior engineer time for a critical reliability improvement.
Dampeners
Scope of multiplier effect is still narrow - team-level only.
Progression Signal
Multiplier effect grows as informal leadership becomes more consistent across platform knowledge areas.
Mid
Individual
Impact
Consistently delivers and actively improves team platform practice - runbook quality, IaC documentation, pipeline standards.
Is a go-to resource for newer team members on CI/CD and basic Kubernetes operations and handles that role well.
Brings a visible growth mindset to platform engineering that is infectious in the team.
Examples
Rewrote an outdated Terraform module guide that had been causing confusion for engineers picking up new infrastructure tasks.
Ran an informal knowledge-share session on Kubernetes pod failure debugging patterns they had recently learned.
Dampeners
Still at graduate level - breadth across cloud architecture and advanced Kubernetes is developing; not yet a technical authority.
Progression Signal
Described by peers as someone who makes the platform team better, not just someone who completes tickets.
Business Impact
Impact
Contribution goes beyond delivery - actively improving team effectiveness and platform knowledge quality.
Positive behaviours create a better environment for others to learn and deliver safely.
Examples
Runbook improvements they made reduced onboarding time for the next graduate joiner by an estimated 30%.
Dampeners
Impact is still primarily internal to the platform team.
Progression Signal
Impact of their contributions begins to extend beyond the immediate team to engineering teams using the platform.
High
Individual
Impact
Operating at the ceiling of what a graduate role can deliver - a clear candidate for promotion to junior platform engineer.
Proactively identifies gaps in platform team practice and drives improvement without being asked.
A visible positive force on team culture, IaC quality, and peer learning around platform engineering.
Examples
Proposed and led an improvement to the team's Terraform PR template that reduced common review comments.
Consistently the first to volunteer for stretch platform work - CI/CD redesign, Kubernetes upgrade support - and consistently delivers it.
Dampeners
Still operating within graduate-scoped context; depth of influence on cloud architecture decisions is bounded by role level.
Progression Signal
Conversation should be about promotion timeline to junior platform engineer, not further development at this level.
Business Impact
Impact
Delivering at a level that justifies progression to junior platform engineer.
Positive influence on platform quality and team culture has measurable impact on delivery consistency.
Examples
Team retrospective feedback consistently cited this individual as a contributor to team effectiveness and platform knowledge quality.
Dampeners
Impact ceiling at graduate level; promotion is the right next step to unlock further contribution.
Progression Signal
Promotion case is clear; delay risks disengagement from an individual who is already delivering above level.
Level 5
Transformative
Low
Individual
Impact
Performing well beyond the graduate level in both platform delivery and team contribution.
Has independently driven improvements to IaC standards or CI/CD patterns that are now embedded and used by the team.
Acts as a practical mentor to other graduates on Kubernetes and Terraform despite being in a graduate role themselves.
Examples
Identified a repeated class of IAM misconfiguration in the codebase and proposed and implemented a module-level guard to prevent it.
Mentored two other graduates through their first Kubernetes deployment tasks without involving a senior engineer.
Dampeners
Impact, however exceptional, is still scoped by the nature of graduate-level work; the role level is the constraint.
Progression Signal
Promotion should have already happened or be imminent; this level of performance should not persist at graduate for long.
Business Impact
Impact
Delivering impact more typical of a junior or intermediate platform engineer.
Their presence has a measurable positive effect on team capability and platform quality.
Examples
Attributed with reducing a class of IAM-related pipeline failures through a Terraform module pattern they introduced.
Dampeners
Exceptional at this level but still bounded by graduate scope; promotion unlocks further platform impact.
Progression Signal
Post-promotion trajectory is expected to continue at this rate of growth.
Mid
Individual
Impact
Anomalously strong for a graduate - operating as a capable junior platform engineer in all but title.
Drives cross-team contributions on CI/CD tooling and participates in Kubernetes architecture discussions with credibility.
Sets a standard that raises the bar for the graduate cohort as a whole.
Examples
Contributed a well-received proposal to improve the team's Helm chart structure across multiple services.
Independently delivered a non-trivial Terraform module for a new cloud service with no escalation to a senior engineer.
Dampeners
This rating at graduate level is rare and should prompt an immediate promotion review.
Progression Signal
Promotion is overdue; further delay is a retention risk for a high-potential platform engineer.
Business Impact
Impact
Business value delivered is disproportionate to the graduate role level.
Cross-team contributions create platform value beyond the immediate team boundary.
Examples
CI/CD pipeline improvement they designed reduced build times for two engineering teams by 25%.
Dampeners
Exceptional and should not persist at this level; promotion should be the priority response.
Progression Signal
Post-promotion, impact trajectory is expected to accelerate significantly.
High
Individual
Impact
Performing at a level that makes their graduate title almost irrelevant - they are a mid-level platform engineer by impact.
Technical contributions to IaC quality, Kubernetes operations, and CI/CD reliability rival those of experienced engineers on the team.
Represents an extreme outlier in the graduate cohort.
Examples
Delivered an end-to-end Terraform module for a new cloud environment with no guidance that passed review without significant rework.
Their IaC quality and review contributions are indistinguishable from junior platform engineers on the team.
Dampeners
Keeping this individual at graduate level is a significant retention risk and a failure of the performance process.
Progression Signal
Immediate promotion; the performance system has not kept pace with this individual's platform engineering growth.
Business Impact
Impact
Delivering outsized business value for a graduate cost - effectively a force multiplier on platform team capacity.
Recognised beyond the immediate team as an exceptional contributor to platform quality.
Examples
Cited by the engineering manager as one of the top contributors to platform reliability improvements in the quarter.
Dampeners
This situation reflects a process failure; promotion action should be immediate.
Progression Signal
Promotion resolves the mismatch; continued growth expected post-promotion.