Standard operating procedure

New Engineer First-Week Onboarding SOP

Following this procedure guarantees that a new engineer has secure access, clear social integration, a verified first contribution, and a structured feedback loop within five business days.

Owner Engineering ManagerTrigger Offer letter signed and start date confirmedReview This SOP is reviewed annually by the Head of Engineering and HR Business Partner to ensure alignment with current tools and team structure.

Applies to all newly hired software engineers from the moment the offer is accepted until the end of the first week. Does not apply to contractors or interns unless explicitly specified in their contract.

Procedure

  1. 1
    Create and distribute login credentials for all required systems (GitHub, Jira, Slack, CI/CD, cloud console)
    IT OperationsIdentity Management System
    Done when The new engineer successfully logs into GitHub and Jira using the provided credentials
  2. 2
    Assign a buddy and schedule a 30-minute introductory coffee chat
    Engineering ManagerCalendar System
    Done when The calendar invite for the buddy introduction is sent and accepted by both parties
  3. 3
    Provide the new engineer with a 'Hello World' or low-risk bug fix task and explain the local development setup
    BuddyLocal Development Environment
    Done when The new engineer has the codebase cloned locally and the application runs successfully on their machine
  4. 4
    Guide the new engineer through creating a pull request and merging their first commit
    BuddyGitHub/GitLab
    Done when The pull request is merged into the main branch and the CI pipeline passes green
  5. 5
    Conduct a 15-minute check-in to review access, setup, and the first commit experience
    Engineering ManagerVideo Conferencing Tool
    Done when The meeting takes place and any immediate blockers are documented in the ticketing system
  6. 6
    Schedule a 30-minute structured checkpoint meeting for the end of day 5
    Engineering ManagerCalendar System
    Done when The meeting is scheduled on the calendar with the agenda shared with the new engineer
  7. 7
    Review progress against the first-week checklist and address any outstanding blockers or questions
    Engineering ManagerProject Management Tool
    Done when The checklist is marked as complete and any open issues are assigned to owners with due dates

If something goes wrong