Role realignment

[u/Turbo_MechE]

It was recently announced that several teams in my department will be part of a realignment to “more accurately reflect the work they do.” Changing from Software Engineer to Project Engineer or System Engineer depending on the role.

Seems silly to spend the time and money to make this change. Supposedly there’s no impact on compensation. And that might be true in the short term but affects market analysis and the target band.

[u/Then-Chocolate-5191]

It’s balancing Engineering Centers, happens periodically.

[u/Turbo_MechE → u/Then-Chocolate-5191]

What do you mean by balancing engineering centers? And why do they bother?

[u/Then-Chocolate-5191 → u/Turbo_MechE]

Mostly a number of people per center. Years ago one of the reliability engineers I worked with got remapped to a packaging engineering group, in protest he stacked empty boxes on his desk.

[u/Turbo_MechE → u/Then-Chocolate-5191]

But our centers stayed the same. It’s just the title in Workday

[u/D_BrickashawFerguson → u/Turbo_MechE]

It’s the “engineering playbook.” My chief engineer group has been renamed from systems to project. We still report up the same management chain. Other hardware groups are seeing actual realignment, separating ECAD designers from hardware into the components engineering group as one example. Change is the only constant here.

[u/Then-Chocolate-5191 → u/Turbo_MechE]

I don’t know then, but usually when they change titles like that they realign employees to another engineering center.

[u/Interesting_News_830]

Its called rearranging the deck chairs. Thats what saved the Titanic.

[u/feedyourheeeaaaddd]

There's no impact on compensation the moment it happens, but there could be implications come ACP and promo adjustment time due to changes in market penetration based on the aalary ranges of the new role

[u/Turbo_MechE → u/feedyourheeeaaaddd]

Yep, which is why everyone was very hesitant in the meeting. Someone called it an incomplete answer since folks are expecting an impact on ACP and bonus

[u/ByteMyShinyMetalAss1]

I've been through it. My section was split in half, some went one way the rest went another. After the realignment some people in Section Head and Manager roles were looking for work elsewhere.

[u/-AverageJoe-]

It is most likely an attempt to align titles with the work you do based on the job catalog. It won't effect your current compensation. Generally, there are small differences among the specific engineering disciplines but it shouldn't have a big impact on future compensation either.

[u/Ewokhunters]

Get ready for even worse salary compression...

[u/olderbutslower]

Happened to me a little over a year ago (Collins). My title went from principal swe to manager, I have no direct reports and am in an “analyst” role. I attend a lot of meetings, offer information when I can, have trained on a bunch of new stuff I don’t use and my current project changes every couple of months. I’m honestly surprised I’m still employed by the company. If the forced move was a setup for being laid off, they forgot so far.

[u/good-citizen2056]

Smells like layoff is coming

[u/Turbo_MechE → u/good-citizen2056]

My guess is they’re about to market adjust the software engineers and wanted to remove eligibility

[u/BarracudaEfficient16]

All three of those have different pay scales. For example a P4 scale you see is the min/max for all P4s, but for each role there is a specific sub scale that you’re likely never to see.

[u/Turbo_MechE → u/BarracudaEfficient16]

Yeah, that’s my concern

[u/BarracudaEfficient16 → u/Turbo_MechE]

Doubt they’ll change anyone’s pay as part of the effort but it’d start to affect it in the future for raises.

[u/Turbo_MechE → u/BarracudaEfficient16]

Yep. Which is still an effect on compensation. Just a secondary effect which is why it felt shady saying there was no impact

[u/BarracudaEfficient16 → u/Turbo_MechE]

Because the is no immediate impact. They are either careful choosing their words or are ignorant of second order third order effects that pop up down the line.

[u/Dumb_Logic_01]

Working for a company now where role realignment is desperately needed. I’d just ask that you consider whether they are in part doing the right thing. I’m looking at some of the jr engineers I’m currently working with and career wise it’s going to be a major hurdle for them if/when they decide to go to a different company. Our scope of work doesn’t match the title nor the req that was advertised. It also puts the program at a severe disadvantage because you have people making decisions about things they don’t have the right experience for. I know RTX isn’t this bad but just a thought you may want to kick around.

[u/Informal_Article3699]

It’s the engineering playbook. It’s so that everyone across RTX engineering who does a similar type of role has the same job role identified. Doesn’t change what you do - it’s to ensure consistency in job role identification across the company. Intent is to make it easier to identify who does what (and ultimately for you to move roles across RTX more easily). It’s not a bad thing.