Meridian Capital Labs
People · Engineering
Confidential
March 18, 2025
Notice of Promotion

From Staff to Principal.

Issued To
Elena Marquez
New Role
Principal Engineer
Effective
April 1, 2025

Dear Elena,

It is my privilege to confirm your promotion to Principal Engineer at Meridian Capital Labs, effective the first of April. This advancement reflects four years of exceptional technical judgment, the payments platform rearchitecture you led last autumn, and the quiet way you have raised the bar for everyone around you.

The engineering leadership team evaluated this promotion against our Principal rubric unanimously, and without reservation. You have outgrown the Staff role in scope, influence, and impact — and the company now needs you operating at the level this title implies.

"The Principal tier is reserved for engineers who shape not only what we build, but how we decide what to build."

Your expanded charter.

01
Cross-Team Technical Strategy
Own the technical roadmap across Payments, Ledger, and Risk — three product teams, roughly forty engineers.
02
Architecture Review Board Chair
Chair the ARB. Set standards for system design reviews and ratify all tier-one architectural decisions.
03
Engineering Craft & Mentorship
Sponsor the Staff+ community, advise on promotion calibrations, and grow the next cohort of senior technical leaders.
Revised Compensation

The numbers, in plain terms.

Base Salary Annualized, paid semi-monthly beginning April 15. $240,000
RSU Refresh Granted annually, four-year vest with one-year cliff. $150,000 /yr
Target Bonus 20% of base, tied to company and individual performance. $48,000
Title & Level Principal Engineer, IC6 — reporting to the VP of Engineering. IC6

All other terms of your employment — benefits, equity vesting already in flight, PTO accrual — remain unchanged. Your partner in People Operations, Devika Anand, will reach out within the week to walk through the updated offer summary and grant paperwork.

Thank you for the care you bring to this company, and for the engineers you are quietly making better every day. I could not be happier to watch you step into this role.

With admiration,

Jonas Åkerlund
Jonas Åkerlund
VP of Engineering
Priya Raman
Priya Raman
Chief Technology Officer