Add engineering onboarding checklist for new hires

Approved & merged

by Maya PatelJun 30, 2026

Total

Changes

New documentOnboarding Checklist — 28 lines

No text changes to review.

Onboarding Checklist

Engineering Onboarding Checklist

Week 1: Environment & Access

•Get laptop configured with standard dev tools (see IT setup guide)

•Gain access to GitHub, Slack, Jira, and internal dashboards

•Complete security training and sign acceptable use policy

•Meet your onboarding buddy and schedule daily check-ins for first two weeks

•Read the team's README and architecture overview docs

Week 2-4: First Contributions

•Complete a "good first issue" from the team backlog

•Shadow a senior engineer during an on-call shift

•Attend your first sprint planning and retrospective

•Set up local development environment and run the full test suite

•Submit your first PR and go through the review process

Day 30-60: Building Context

•Own a small feature or bug fix end-to-end

•Present a brief technical overview of your feature at team standup

•Complete at least one code review for a teammate

•Meet with your manager to set 90-day goals

•Identify one area of the codebase you want to go deeper on

Day 60-90: Independence

•Lead a feature from design through deployment

•Participate in an incident response or post-mortem

•Write or update documentation for something you learned the hard way

•Complete 90-day check-in with manager — review goals and set new ones

Tips for Managers

•Don't overload the first week with meetings

•Assign an onboarding buddy who is not the direct manager

•Check in at day 7, 30, 60, and 90 — adjust pace based on feedback