What is your experience with people in these positions- its being sold to us as equivalent to managerial track in terms of cl and benefits and prestige. Are principal engineers just rebranded specialists? Senior principal just placeholder low management position? Does this designation in any way add value to technical career path vs past?
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Most STP individuals are placed in high CL groups to fill the bottom of the rank lists. The best STP will drop in ranking because chosen Execs must be propped up in ranking not because of their performance or achievements but because of their theoretical potential.
Super fast track back in the day for CL30 STP designation was a yee of about 30-35 and most appointments were generally a yee of 35-40. With cl30 exec position then a newly minted stp would see about an annual bonus of about 20-50% of base salary awarded in RSUs, EBUs, and Cash dependent on rgp. The top two quintiles would see about 1/3 of total annual bonus in ebus and cash with remainder in rsus. The bottom quintile gets zero annual bonus. The 3rd and 4th quintile only got rsus , no ebus or cash bonus. Other posters absolutely correct … stp exec positions used to fill lower rgp so managers stay higher ranked and it has been huge blood letting of exec stps fired or retir d last 4 years … so now stps are parking lots of people who are or will quickly be shunned by the company.
Once an STP get to CL 30 to 32...They drop in RG against managers. With highly overlapping salary bands, it is possible to get promoted and drop in ranking...usually it is your last big pay raise. Many STP were Pip'd in 2020...
Also, there are many highly ranked CL 29 who make MORE than CL 30. Because once you drop into bottom 20% your lose RSU. This is a signal to retire..
Upstream had nearly 300 STP in 2019. Today IT needs to be under 150. Executives need to be cut massively and this will happen as entire countries are sold off once PXD deal closes. Mal/Aus/Germany/Angola and non-Permian US will be sold.
What age/yee is typical for becoming STP, pricipal or above? What would be considered good on technical carrer path?
Over the next five years, all CL-30's and above will disappear and the highest CL that you will obtain is CL-28/29 after 30+ years. If you are a technical CL-30+ you will be demoted to CL-29. You will keep your salary but you will not see a raise for the next decade.
Only V.P's and above will be CL-30 and above going forward.
I know a lot of STPs. Like in every other position, some are exceptional, and some are terrible. Some are very technical, some are not at all. Some are washed out managers, some have spent minimal amounts of time as managers, and a few have never been managers. Many have never wanted to be managers, were pushed into management for "growth," and got out of management, by their own request, as soon as they were "allowed" to leave management. People are varied - go figure.
As for CL bands, the old system was senior consultant (now SPE) was 30-31 and chief was 32-33. In the new system, SPE is 28-31 and chief is 30-33. Those are positional CLs. The actual CL of the person in the position may be different than the position's CL.
Stp designation is the only way to get job security in emtec as technical during next 5 year restructuring phase. Pay attention to skills you enter in the system. Level 3s are a life raft
OP, the reality of the STPs is that they are failed managers with no technical skills. They probably never had any technical skills and that's why they became managers. But they have absolutely no technical skills or knowledge. Unfortunately, these people have influence over your career and can really screu you badly so keep'em happy. The same applies to most chiefs.
These positions are like consolation prices. You didn't make it as a manager or executive, here, be a STP. It is like the positions of advisors and so on. They don't add value. They are useless. But that's how things are with Durwood.
Even if God came to work - they will be PIPed and put at the bottom by our blind, intellectually challenged, greedy and mentally demented supervisors and managers.
Most STPs are failed managers who lost any technical expertise years ago. Their function is as hacks for messaging bad news.
@2twm ... you are so seriously stupid and uninformed ... absolutely pitiful your statements to imply PE is CL29 and SPE is CL31...you clearly are not in the know ... the below posts are beyond accurate and written by PE's and SPE's and retired Chiefs ... did you goto Harvard?
SPE is 31 and PE is 29. Lower posts have that incorrect. This relationship between position and CL can change over time.
There are several Senior Principal Engineers without an engineering degree
David Scott is deactivated!
Real story is they’re shoving a ton of work on those individuals in order to take it away from EMTEC and increase capabilities at site. May be a good thing according to some, but good lord those folks must be over burdened.
What is the real story behind the new site principal positions, "manufacturing principal engineers"?
All of the Senior Principals in EMTEC are filled with people who had Department level positions. The Chiefs are even worse as a dumping ground for washed out and incompetent division and tech managers.
All technical jobs are being off-shored and there will be few principals from ranks of competent USA employees.
Not equivalent. Note one poster's note about STP's being filled by former managers - the reverse will never happen. Those upper individual contributor positions are being filled with former managers as management positions get eliminated.
Principal at 28, Senior Principal at 29............and if you managed to see a shooting star, you might get to 30 right before retirement.
But 29 and above is not at site, it will be in the EMTEC org. Site principal tops out at 28.
The STP positions have been seriously marginalized since their original inception and now viewed by management is a simple and cleanway to fill the lower rgp quintiles to prop up the management counterparts in same rank group. When originally implemented, the Chief positions were to be CL32-33 range, and the Sr Consultants were to be CL30-31 range and the people assigned to these positions were top notch technical experts widely recognized by industry. Fast forward 15 years later and focus for senior technical track positions has been to rename and adjust downward the titles and classification levels and salaries. Principals Engineers can now be CL27-28 levels and Sr Principals are generally CL29-and maybe CL30; and Chief positions have now become vacant parking lots for putting into final pasture redundant executive level positions and executive people that actually are not considered global or industry preeminent technical experts in their technical disciplines, and last 2 years you’re now seeing exiled management types beginning to populate the sr principal positions. It really appears the goal during the last five years in the evolution of the STP assignments has been to reduce staffing cost and reduce number of overall technical executive level positions to save monies. All while S&D selling as a solid technical career path alternative to management. This would be ok if anyone had view that company offers a career, but all the fake pips should make a wise person question if a career is even remotely possible anymore.
A make believe “ladder” designed to appease/ deceive those not deemed worthy of the management track. The technical professionals will always occupy the lower levels of the rank list so as to not impede the progress of the chosen ones.
this pathway will always be second fiddle to the management types. there is a distinct bias to being lower in ranked when you're a technical contributor .... while I'm retired now, I recall being asked by several VPs what can we do to get our STP's better ranking positions ... I told them to ask themselves as they did the ranking, not me. unfortunately, this company really runs with a strong STP corp and what's happening with the systematic biases to put these key folks in the lower regions of the rank list is a crime.
Ya.. what these guys said
Bogus title to try and squeeze more out is their engineers while claiming they are on par with manager progression. Never seen it compete with the an actual rocket
There is no technical career path in the company anymore. Technical is a commodity and therefore commands no premium. The STPs I've seen have just been 'yes' people and pretend managers.
Significantly gone downhill in line with the management direction and vision.
You need to have managed people to be considered for Sr. Principal, and it’s strongly recommended for Principal. The idea that you can stay 100% technical and move up the technical ladder is 100% false. Don’t shoot me, I’m just the messenger.
There is no technical ladder. Every single technical person I know who is experienced or close to retirement is miserable. They need to rank managers and technical separate. They don’t because they use the technical people to fill in the low ranking.
A lot of the senior principals that have been promoted of late came out of management vs. technical ladder anyway. These days we've got a management ladder and the future PIP pool and that's it.