A New Career Model at MOIA
by Frank Heuer (People Business Partner) and Emanuele Giarlini (Director of Engineering)
From startup to growth phase
During the last years, MOIA went through a growth phase — moving away from the startup phase and slowly becoming a more organized company of almost 400 people. This rapid growth ended up creating some friction with the career model adopted by the company in 2022, the so-called Ice Cream Model.
This model was focused on giving individuals a different perspective on growth, the typical “career ladder” known in the industry was replaced with a model that was not based on titles but rather focused on T-shaped development and personal motivation. This mode, even if quite successful during the first years, started to be challenged by many folks who had a different perspective on growth; in particular, people were looking for a clear role definition based on their responsibilities and the industry standard and a clear career path to follow in order to grow inside the organization.
Other than the reason above, it was becoming increasingly important to have a shared career model across all the business areas of MOIA so that all the departments were following the same career progression. Finally, an update of our career model was needed to provide more transparency and fairness to our salary and promotion benchmark to avoid biases and evaluate people based on the real contribution they can make.
In order to solve, or at least alleviate, the issues previously described, we decided to build a new career model this year. Our aim is to create a more structured growth path, leaving some room for the departments to adapt it to their needs. The new model is also built to consider the upcoming EU legislative changes that will have to be adopted by MOIA.
Our new career model
The first dimension of the new model are the five different levels defined as follow:
- Operational
- Enabling
- Guiding
- Shaping
- Executive
The levels are differentiated by two perspectives, one being strategic foresight, so how long into the future does a role in general look and the other being impact across company, enabling and orchestrating interactions of people and teams. It is supposed to give a generic guideline to role definitions and allow everyone to have a rough understanding of what a certain level at MOIA is responsible for.
The second dimension of the model is based on the Titles that belong to each level. Our Title structure is derived from big tech and industry standards, to also allow assumptions on seniority and responsibility to the outside world. Nevertheless, this logic is not perfect and there will be roles deviating from our overall title logic, which is fine in certain cases, as there are other naming conventions present in the respective industry.
With the career model, we also introduced two guiding principles on development. Growing within a role should be easily possible and, if it doesn’t take career opportunities away from other people, can be discussed between people manager and employee.
If however, by moving into a new role, other people can’t do that job anymore (there is not an infinite amount of people at MOIA, so not everyone can become a people manager) the transition to the new role has to be transparent and everyone who wants to step into that role as well should be heard. How this process looks like might differ by department and the specific needs.
Additionally, there is no set rule that someone from an operational level cannot apply for a guiding level role. It might be more realistic to get the job when folks have already gained valuable experience with a role at the enabling level, but there might also be arguments why a candidate could be the perfect fit for that role — so we want to encourage everybody to do what feels right.
Reflection
The new career model was released in June 2024 and it has been working effectively so far. The clarity of the new model helps individuals understand their level and their role inside the organization.
The MOIA journey from a startup to a more structured organization has taught us the importance of flexibility, transparency, and inclusivity in our growth strategies.
As we continue to adapt and refine our career model, we will ensure that it evolves along with our internal needs and the external environment. Together, we are building a workplace where everyone can thrive and contribute meaningfully to our collective success.
