What a L5 SDE is expected in Amazon

I was in a dinner party to celebrate KMS 2022 hackathon, chatting with a newly hired L5 SDE, when she asked: “So tell me, what does Amazon expect from a L5 SDE?” Interesting question. Amazon has very detailed role guidelines for each level and each role, I could just send her to read the document. But since it was after my second johnnie walker blue label, I decided to answer the question in my own words. “Suppose you go visit your parents and decide to cook a nice dinner for them, to show your appreciation for their unconditional love to you all these years...” My listener was intrigued. “As a responsible grownup to give their parents a treat, 1. You would plan ahead what to cook to make you parents happy. 2. You would prepare the ingredients beforehand. 3. You would cook the dinner and serve them on time. But wait, it is not done yet. 4. You would also clean the table and dishes, making sure your parents do not need to clean after you.” “Now why would you do all these stuff? Because you love your parents and you want to make sure they can enjoy the dinner and after the dinner. Because that is what they have been doing for you.” “Yeah. That sounds nice. But how is this related to a L5 SDE?”, she asked. “Well, in Amazon a L5 SDE is expected to deliver a project end to end independently. You would collect requirements and define the project scope, just like how you would plan a dinner. You would divide the project into milestones and get them done on expected dates, just like how you cook the dinner for your parents and serve them on time. You would get your project through operational readiness: set up metrics, alarms, dashboards and runbooks, just like how you would clean the table and dishes for your parents.” “Why? because if you don't clean the dishes, your parents would have to do it. If you don't have metrics, alarms, dashboards and runbooks, your team members or oncall engineers would have no clue how to support your features.” “See, the expectation from a L5 SDE in Amazon is not much different from the expectation for a responsible grownup cooking dinner for their parents: you have to do it end to end.” “A responsible grownup stops expecting their parents to take care of them, they start to take care of their parents instead.” “A L5 SDE stops relying on others to clean up after their work. They think on behalf all the stakeholders: end customers, partner teams, business leaders, team members and oncall engineers. They deliver end to end, cover the whole spectrum of the project lifecycle.” I had another sip of my whiskey on rock, realizing I should cook a nice dinner for my parents, and clean up the dishes, when I see them next time.