COSTA RICATecHub

Career paths

How careers actually develop: what separates one level from the next, which lateral moves exist, and which skills support them.

PathAreaStepsPublished
Backend engineering

From implementing services to deciding how the company’s systems talk to each other.

Technology5Aug 10, 2026v1.0
DevOps and site reliability

From automating deployments to answering for whether the system stays up.

Technology5Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Frontend engineering

From building screens to defining how the whole company builds interfaces.

Technology6Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Infrastructure and networks

The foundation everything else runs on.

Technology4Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Internal IT support

From answering tickets to designing how the whole company works with its tools.

Technology5Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Mobile engineering

Building and sustaining applications that live on somebody else’s phone.

Technology4Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Product management

From executing a plan to deciding what gets built and what does not.

Technology5Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Quality assurance

From finding defects to designing how they are prevented.

Technology4Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Software engineering: from junior to management

The most travelled route in the sector in Costa Rica, including the fork between staying technical and moving to leading people.

Technology5Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Solutions architecture

Turning a business problem into a system somebody can build and keep running.

Technology3Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Data analytics

From answering questions with data to deciding which questions are worth asking.

Data5Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Data science

From fitting models to deciding whether a model was the right answer at all.

Data4Aug 10, 2026v1.0
From analysis into data engineering

How people in Costa Rica move from reports and queries into building the data pipelines. Not the only route — the one that comes up most often.

Data6Aug 10, 2026v1.1
Machine learning engineering

Taking models to production and keeping them alive when the world shifts.

Data3Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Learning and development

Making sure people learn what the company is going to need.

Human resources3Aug 10, 2026v1.0
People and HR

From administering processes to designing how the company works.

Human resources5Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Talent acquisition

From filling vacancies to building the capability the company will need.

Human resources5Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Sales

From opening conversations to answering for the company’s number.

Sales5Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Sales operations

Making the commercial team able to sell: process, data, tools and quota.

Sales4Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Solutions engineering

The technical person in a commercial conversation.

Sales3Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Accounting: from assistant to controller

The accounting route in Costa Rica, where certification and IFRS weigh as much as years do.

Needs review

Accounting5Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Internal audit and compliance

Checking that what the company says it does is what it does.

Accounting3Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Brand and communications

What the company says about itself, and what gets said about it.

Communications3Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Technical writing

Making something complex usable without having to ask.

Communications3Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Customer success

Making sure the customer gets what they bought, and stays.

Customer success4Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Customer technical support

From answering a customer to changing the product so they never have to write in.

Customer success6Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Product design

From drawing screens to deciding which problem gets solved.

Design4Aug 10, 2026v1.0
User research

Finding out what people need before it gets built.

Design3Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Finance operations

Payables, receivables, payroll and treasury: the money that moves every day.

Finance6Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Financial planning and analysis

From building the model to deciding where the company spends.

Finance4Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Corporate legal

From reviewing contracts to deciding which risks the company takes.

Legal4Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Privacy and data protection

A young function in Costa Rica, and increasingly asked for.

Legal2Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Digital marketing

From running campaigns to deciding where it is worth showing up.

Marketing4Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Product marketing

Explaining why a product matters, to the person who has to decide.

Marketing3Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Business operations

The function that fixes what no other team claims as theirs.

Operations3Aug 10, 2026v1.0
From manager to executive

The management track once you already lead a team: what changes at each step, and what you stop doing.

Operations4Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Program management

Several projects that only make sense together.

Program management3Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Project management

From coordinating tasks to getting several teams to arrive at the same time.

Program management5Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Information security

From watching alerts to deciding which risks the company accepts.

Cybersecurity5Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Facilities and workplace

The building, the safety and the services that make the rest possible.

Facilities4Aug 10, 2026v1.0
Procurement and sourcing

Deciding who the company buys from and on what terms.

Supply chain3Aug 10, 2026v1.0

How a path is built

  1. 1Initial draft, which may be proposed by AI and is always labeled as such
  2. 2Community review
  3. 3Industry review
  4. 4Academic review
  5. 5Approval and publication with version, evidence date and contributors

A ladder and a path are not the same

A ladder and a path are not the same
Career ladder: progression within one family and track.
Career path: the broader graph, including lateral and adjacent transitions.