Engineering Roadmap Program

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s):

Question:

If an engineer fully complies with the competencies identified for their existing role, will they

automatically be moved up to the next step in the career ladder?

Answer:

The Engineering Career Development Roadmap is intended to provide a guide to help engineers and

their managers prepare themselves to be eligible for engineering opportunities when they arise.

Complying with the listed competencies does not entitle an engineer to a promotion but it is a key

component in preparation for the next step in their careers. The engineer’s manager is ultimately

responsible for the decision as to when a promotion is warranted and the Engineering Career

Development Roadmap is one tool that will be used in this assessment. For advancement on the

leadership side of the engineering career tree, opportunities are limited to the organizational structure

and any vacancies.

Question:

How can we make sure that engineers have opportunities to develop their careers through job openings

at other sites if the engineering organization at their site is limited in scope?

Answer:

One of the initial goals in developing the Engineering Career Development Roadmap was to establish

some consistency in the job titles and expectations for engineering roles across sites and regions. The

standard accountabilities, KPI’s, and knowledge, skills, and abilities that are established for each level of

each position should facilitate more seamless mobility between sites and functional organizations.

Question:

What if my position title is not specifically mentioned in the Engineering Career Development Roadmap?

Answer:

Through the incorporation of personnel from heritage Flowserve companies, there is a variety of

engineering family job titles that currently exist including the generic “engineer” job family. As noted in

the response to the previous question, one of the objectives of this initiative is to drive consistency in

job titles throughout our worldwide engineering community. Job families have been defined within the

Engineering Career Development Roadmap and engineering leadership is working with HR in each

region to audit our existing GEMS job titles against these job families. Where a GEMS title does not

match one of these job family names, we will be slotting individuals into the appropriate GEMS title.

Question:

How does this impact an engineer who does not meet the qualification requirement for the position

that they are currently in?

Answer:

The level definitions in the Engineering Career Development Roadmap are guidelines. However, the

roadmap sets expectations for job levels across the company with the intent of driving consistency

between sites and regions. There will be situations where formal educational requirements or

experience at a certain job level may not be met by an employee. It will be up to the discretion of the

manager to evaluate each employee to determine if the current job level makes sense. The engineering

manager is encouraged to partner with the local HR representative to make an evaluation on these

cases to determine if the employee is at the right level based upon experience and the current job

activities.

Question:

If an engineer chooses either the technical or leadership path as defined in the roadmap, is there an

opportunity for them to switch back to the other branch of the career tree at a later point in their

career?

Answer:

Moving into either branch of the career tree does not limit the opportunities for someone. However, it

may not be possible for someone to move laterally from one branch of the tree to the other. For

example, someone in a Principal Engineer role would likely need to gain experience leading a team in a

Supervisor role rather than moving directly into the Manager role that is parallel to the Principal

Engineer role.

Question:

Quality Engineering and Manufacturing Engineering are not part of the overall engineering organization

so why are they included in this Engineering Career Development Roadmap program?

Answer:

It is accurate that these two engineering functions are not part of the overall Engineering and

Technology organization in FSG at many sites, the Project Engineers and Application Engineers are also

not part of Engineering and Technology. However, the goal of the Engineering Career Development

Roadmap is to provide a more structured understanding of the roles and opportunities for all FSG

technical personnel with a similar engineering background. Depending on their training, work

experience, and career goals, it is possible for engineering resources to move between any of the

engineering job families that are included in the roadmap.

Question:

Will the information in the Engineering Career Development Roadmap be integrated into the PMP

process and the PMP template for engineers?

Answer:

The functional competencies are not currently part of the electronic PMP. Functional competencies and

career development roadmaps are in development for other functional areas, and we anticipate having

all functional roadmaps completed in 2012. Once all roadmaps are completed, we plan to integrate that

information with the electronic PMP to align development planning discussions with the performance

cycle. In the interim, please utilize the tools available to support ongoing career and development

planning discussions. Development planning content can be documented in the existing PMP tools to

ensure it is visible and accessible.

Question:

Why do the higher level positions such as Principal Engineer appear as individual contributor career

steps in some of the engineering families but not in others?

Answer:

Detailed position information including standard accountabilities, key performance indicators,

proficiency charts, etc. was developed for those positions that were considered to be common in our

global organization. This approach enabled the program document to be created based on practical

experience. In general, it is felt that the higher levels of expertise associated with the upper level

positions, such as Principal Engineer, are not typically needed for an individual contributor in some

engineering families. This does not in any way prohibit such a position from being created if it is

determined that a business need for that position exists.