岗 ZaigangZAIGANG WIKI · zaig.zai.cn

Every role, every industry — written by everyone · ISSUE 03
Roles explained, industries unpacked, written by everyone, shared everywhere

Language 简体中文English日本語
POSITION KNOWLEDGE BASE · 8 ENTRIES

Role Knowledge Base

Role and detail on the same screen. Scroll through every role with full information; use the left index to jump without leaving the page.

8 roles · 4 job families 182,640 read this section Updated 2026-11-14
Frontend EngineerBackend EngineerProduct ManagerData AnalystUI / UX DesignerAlgorithm EngineerDevOps EngineerGrowth Operations

Each entry covers duties, skills, salary by company size, ability model, growth path, interview questions, insider notes and FAQ — plus community discussion and edit proposals.

NO.01 · Engineering · Frontend Engineer

Frontend Engineer

Frontend Engineer
Engineering

Turn product logic into interfaces people can see and use

Frontend engineers own everything a user touches in a browser or app: structure, interaction, performance and responsive behaviour. The role sits between design, backend and the user.

15–35K · 14Monthly salary
24,860 reads

Core responsibilities 01 / DUTY

  • Implement designs as responsive, interactive pages
  • Build reusable components and predictable state
  • Handle loading, errors, auth and API integration

Required skills 02 / SKILL

Semantic HTML / CSSJavaScript / TypeScriptA modern frameworkHTTP, caching, renderingBuild & performance tuning

Who this suits 06 / FIT

  • Sensitive to visual and interaction detail
  • Enjoys immediately visible output

FAQ 07 / FAQ

Do frontend engineers need backend skills?

You need to understand APIs, auth, caching and deployment well enough to explain a request end to end.

Related industries & roles 08 / LINK

This role commonly appears in these industries and works with these roles:

Internet & SoftwareE-CommerceFinancial TechnologyEducation & TrainingUI / UX DesignerBackend EngineerProduct Manager

Before you start · insider notes

Frontend is more than slicing designs

State design and engineering discipline are the real differentiators; page fidelity is just the entry ticket.

Performance is a business metric

One extra second of load can cost real conversion; track LCP, INP and CLS as product metrics.

E

Company size × salary

Illustrative ranges · not official statistics · community-editable

The same role pays differently — and asks for different things — at different company sizes. Editorial reference ranges; corrections welcome.

Company sizeMonthly salaryWhat matters
Startup / <5012–22KWear many hats, ship fast
Growth / 50–50018–32KComponent library & standards
Large / 500–5k25–42KPerf, a11y, cross-team work
Platform / >5k32–60KInfra & experience engineering

Abilities required

Five dimensions, level 1–5

Engineering
5/5
Collaboration
4/5
Business sense
3/5
Abstraction
4/5
Delivery
4/5
Typical hiring routes
Campus1–3 yrsIntern conversion
Typical team

2–8 person FE pod, works directly with PM & design

Open standalone page Entry updated 2026-11-12No. 01
NO.02 · Engineering · Backend Engineer

Backend Engineer

Backend Engineer
Engineering

Hold up every visible feature from the invisible side

Backend engineers own server logic, data modelling, API design and reliability. Users never see it, but every order, payment and push depends on it.

18–40K · 14Monthly salary
21,340 reads

Core responsibilities 01 / DUTY

  • Design APIs and data models for consistency
  • Handle concurrency, idempotency and transactions
  • Build monitoring, limits and degradation

Required skills 02 / SKILL

A server language & runtimeSQL and index tuningCaching and queuesAPI design & securityObservability

Who this suits 06 / FIT

  • Likes turning complexity into structure
  • Patient with edge cases

FAQ 07 / FAQ

Go or Java?

Go fits concurrency and cloud-native tooling; Java fits complex enterprise systems. Engineering judgement matters more than the language.

Related industries & roles 08 / LINK

This role commonly appears in these industries and works with these roles:

Internet & SoftwareFinancial TechnologySmart ManufacturingE-CommerceDevOps EngineerFrontend EngineerAlgorithm Engineer

Before you start · insider notes

Write down invariants first

Balance cannot go negative, order IDs are unique, states move one way — list them and the locking design follows.

Check the schema before release

Mismatch between migration scripts, docs and production is where most incidents begin.

E

Company size × salary

Illustrative ranges · not official statistics · community-editable

The same role pays differently — and asks for different things — at different company sizes. Editorial reference ranges; corrections welcome.

Company sizeMonthly salaryWhat matters
Startup / <5014–25KFull-stack delivery, end to end
Growth / 50–50020–36KService split & cache discipline
Large / 500–5k28–48KConcurrency, reliability, capacity
Platform / >5k35–65KPlatform & multi-team architecture

Abilities required

Five dimensions, level 1–5

System modeling
5/5
Collaboration
4/5
Business sense
4/5
Reliability
5/5
Debugging
4/5
Typical hiring routes
Campus2–5 yrsInternal transfer
Typical team

3–10 backend engineers, split by domain

Open standalone page Entry updated 2026-11-12No. 02
NO.03 · Product & Design · Product Manager

Product Manager

Product Manager
Product & Design

Decide what to build — and what not to

Product managers define requirements from real user problems, prioritise and drive delivery. They are accountable for outcomes, not for writing tickets.

15–38K · 14Monthly salary
28,970 reads

Core responsibilities 01 / DUTY

  • Find real problems through interviews and data
  • Define scope and acceptance criteria
  • Track metrics after launch and iterate

Required skills 02 / SKILL

User researchStructured writingMetric designBusiness modellingCross-team influence

Who this suits 06 / FIT

  • Comfortable deciding with incomplete information
  • Responsible for outcomes

FAQ 07 / FAQ

Must a PM code?

No, but you must understand where data comes from and what a change costs.

Related industries & roles 08 / LINK

This role commonly appears in these industries and works with these roles:

Internet & SoftwareE-CommerceFinancial TechnologyHealthcareEducation & TrainingUI / UX DesignerData AnalystGrowth Operations

Before you start · insider notes

What users ask for is rarely the requirement

Restore the scenario before designing a solution, or you just accumulate features.

Prioritisation is the hardest skill

Impact × confidence ÷ cost beats whoever speaks loudest.

E

Company size × salary

Illustrative ranges · not official statistics · community-editable

The same role pays differently — and asks for different things — at different company sizes. Editorial reference ranges; corrections welcome.

Company sizeMonthly salaryWhat matters
Startup / <5012–25KAlso does research & ops, fast calls
Growth / 50–50018–35KOwns module metrics & roadmap
Large / 500–5k25–45KCross-team alignment & trade-offs
Platform / >5k35–60KProduct line strategy & resourcing

Abilities required

Five dimensions, level 1–5

Prioritization
5/5
Structured writing
5/5
Business sense
5/5
Data literacy
4/5
Influence
4/5
Typical hiring routes
Campus PM track1–5 yrsOps/eng transfer
Typical team

Virtual pod with 1 designer & 3–8 engineers

Open standalone page Entry updated 2026-11-11No. 03
NO.04 · Data & AI · Data Analyst

Data Analyst

Data Analyst
Data & AI

Answer what actually happened, with data

Data analysts turn events and transactions into decisions: metric definitions, reports, anomaly diagnosis and experiment evaluation.

13–32K · 14Monthly salary
19,520 reads

Core responsibilities 01 / DUTY

  • Own metric definitions and dashboards
  • Extract, clean and validate data
  • Diagnose anomalies with funnels and cohorts

Required skills 02 / SKILL

SQLStatistics & experimentsMetric decompositionPython / PandasData storytelling

Who this suits 06 / FIT

  • Careful about definitions
  • Can explain numbers to non-technical peers

FAQ 07 / FAQ

Analyst vs algorithm engineer?

Analysts explain and advise; algorithm engineers turn patterns into automated services.

Related industries & roles 08 / LINK

This role commonly appears in these industries and works with these roles:

E-CommerceFinancial TechnologyInternet & SoftwareHealthcareAlgorithm EngineerProduct ManagerGrowth Operations

Before you start · insider notes

Align definitions first

Two teams counting DAU differently will argue forever; settle the definition before analysis.

Correlation is not causation

Coupon users may simply be the already-active ones. Without a control group, wait.

E

Company size × salary

Illustrative ranges · not official statistics · community-editable

The same role pays differently — and asks for different things — at different company sizes. Editorial reference ranges; corrections welcome.

Company sizeMonthly salaryWhat matters
Startup / <5010–20KBuild tracking & reports from zero
Growth / 50–50015–30KDeep dives & experiment design
Large / 500–5k22–40KMetric systems & definitions
Platform / >5k28–50KStrategy evaluation & decision support

Abilities required

Five dimensions, level 1–5

SQL
5/5
Statistics
4/5
Business sense
5/5
Data storytelling
4/5
Rigor
5/5
Typical hiring routes
Campus0–3 yrsOps transfer
Typical team

1–5 analyst team serving many stakeholders

Open standalone page Entry updated 2026-11-11No. 04
NO.05 · Product & Design · UI / UX Designer

UI / UX Designer

UI / UX Designer
Product & Design

Make it beautiful — and make it obvious

UI owns visual consistency, UX owns information structure and task flow. In smaller teams one person does both and validates with research.

12–30K · 13Monthly salary
17,280 reads

Core responsibilities 01 / DUTY

  • Map information architecture and task flows
  • Build component libraries and design systems
  • Define empty, loading and error states

Required skills 02 / SKILL

Interaction designTypography & hierarchyDesign systemsUser researchFigma

Who this suits 06 / FIT

  • Detail-oriented
  • Willing to be proven wrong by users

FAQ 07 / FAQ

Should designers code?

Understanding the box model and responsive constraints removes most handoff friction.

Related industries & roles 08 / LINK

This role commonly appears in these industries and works with these roles:

Internet & SoftwareE-CommerceEducation & TrainingHealthcareProduct ManagerFrontend EngineerGrowth Operations

Before you start · insider notes

Never skip empty and error states

A review showing only the happy path guarantees rushed copy later.

Consistency beats novelty

Ten different button radii quietly raise the learning cost.

E

Company size × salary

Illustrative ranges · not official statistics · community-editable

The same role pays differently — and asks for different things — at different company sizes. Editorial reference ranges; corrections welcome.

Company sizeMonthly salaryWhat matters
Startup / <5010–20KDefine visual language from scratch
Growth / 50–50015–28KDesign system & user research
Large / 500–5k20–38KCross-platform consistency & metrics
Platform / >5k28–48KDesign language & brand strategy

Abilities required

Five dimensions, level 1–5

Visual craft
5/5
Information architecture
5/5
User research
4/5
Collaboration
4/5
System thinking
4/5
Typical hiring routes
Campus1–4 yrsPortfolio career switch
Typical team

1–4 designers across 2–3 product lines

Open standalone page Entry updated 2026-11-10No. 05
NO.06 · Data & AI · Algorithm Engineer

Algorithm Engineer

Algorithm Engineer
Data & AI

Train a pattern, then keep it stable in production

Algorithm engineers solve prediction, recommendation and generation problems at scale. Sample design and evaluation usually matter more than model architecture.

25–55K · 15Monthly salary
22,310 reads

Core responsibilities 01 / DUTY

  • Translate business goals into optimisable targets
  • Build samples and features without leakage
  • Monitor drift after deployment

Required skills 02 / SKILL

ML & deep learningLinear algebra & probabilityPython / PyTorchFeature engineeringEvaluation design

Who this suits 06 / FIT

  • Strong math foundation
  • Cares about production, not only SOTA

FAQ 07 / FAQ

Is a master's degree required?

Research roles often require it, but applied recommendation and risk roles hire on project ownership.

Related industries & roles 08 / LINK

This role commonly appears in these industries and works with these roles:

Artificial IntelligenceInternet & SoftwareFinancial TechnologyHealthcareData AnalystBackend EngineerDevOps Engineer

Before you start · insider notes

Data leakage is the quietest bug

If a feature isn't available at prediction time, offline scores are fiction.

Baselines beat novelty

Ship a simple rule first so you can measure whether a complex model is worth its cost.

E

Company size × salary

Illustrative ranges · not official statistics · community-editable

The same role pays differently — and asks for different things — at different company sizes. Editorial reference ranges; corrections welcome.

Company sizeMonthly salaryWhat matters
Startup / <5020–35KValidate use cases & baselines
Growth / 50–50028–48KSamples, features, deployment loop
Large / 500–5k35–60KEvaluation & inference cost
Platform / >5k45–80KPlatform capabilities & research

Abilities required

Five dimensions, level 1–5

Math
5/5
Engineering
4/5
Experimentation
5/5
Business sense
4/5
Evaluation rigor
5/5
Typical hiring routes
Campus (MSc+)2–5 yrsResearch to eng
Typical team

2–6 with data eng & backend support

Open standalone page Entry updated 2026-11-13No. 06
NO.07 · Engineering · DevOps Engineer

DevOps Engineer

DevOps Engineer
Engineering

Make releases boring and safe

DevOps connects build, deploy, monitoring, scaling and recovery. The goal is faster delivery and steadier systems through automation.

18–38K · 14Monthly salary
14,650 reads

Core responsibilities 01 / DUTY

  • Build CI/CD, canary and rollback
  • Maintain containers and config
  • Set up monitoring, logs and tracing

Required skills 02 / SKILL

Linux & networkingContainers & orchestrationCI/CD & IaCIncident responseScripting

Who this suits 06 / FIT

  • Strong sense of ownership for reliability
  • Likes automating repetition

FAQ 07 / FAQ

Will cloud replace ops?

It replaces manual toil, not reliability engineering, architecture or cost governance.

Related industries & roles 08 / LINK

This role commonly appears in these industries and works with these roles:

Internet & SoftwareFinancial TechnologySmart ManufacturingNew EnergyBackend EngineerAlgorithm EngineerFrontend Engineer

Before you start · insider notes

Rollback must be faster than repair

If there's no one-click rollback, that is your biggest release risk.

Every alert needs an action

Alerts without a runbook get muted, then missed when it matters.

E

Company size × salary

Illustrative ranges · not official statistics · community-editable

The same role pays differently — and asks for different things — at different company sizes. Editorial reference ranges; corrections welcome.

Company sizeMonthly salaryWhat matters
Startup / <5014–26KOps + dev, get deploys working
Growth / 50–50020–38KCI/CD & monitoring systems
Large / 500–5k28–46KMulti-env governance & SLOs
Platform / >5k35–62KInternal platform & cost

Abilities required

Five dimensions, level 1–5

Linux & networking
5/5
Automation
5/5
Incident response
5/5
Collaboration
4/5
Reliability
5/5
Typical hiring routes
Campus2–6 yrsBackend transfer
Typical team

2–6 platform team serving all engineering

Open standalone page Entry updated 2026-11-10No. 07
NO.08 · Marketing & Ops · Growth Operations

Growth Operations

Growth Operations
Marketing & Ops

Find repeatable growth on a limited budget

Growth operators work across acquisition, activation, retention and monetisation, using experiments to find what scales.

12–30K · 13Monthly salary
16,890 reads

Core responsibilities 01 / DUTY

  • Break growth targets down by funnel step
  • Run acquisition and reactivation campaigns
  • Measure CAC, LTV and incremental lift

Required skills 02 / SKILL

Funnel analysisCopy & creativityExperiment designUser segmentationBasic SQL

Who this suits 06 / FIT

  • Creative and data-comfortable
  • Accepts fast trial and error

FAQ 07 / FAQ

Do operators need analytics?

At minimum funnels, retention and experiment readouts; strategy work is hard without them.

Related industries & roles 08 / LINK

This role commonly appears in these industries and works with these roles:

E-CommerceEducation & TrainingInternet & SoftwareHealthcareProduct ManagerData AnalystUI / UX Designer

Before you start · insider notes

A peak is not growth

If a sale doesn't raise the retention baseline, it just pulled demand forward.

Subsidies need a holdout

Without a control group you cannot tell whether users would have bought anyway.

E

Company size × salary

Illustrative ranges · not official statistics · community-editable

The same role pays differently — and asks for different things — at different company sizes. Editorial reference ranges; corrections welcome.

Company sizeMonthly salaryWhat matters
Startup / <5010–22KChannel experiments, lean budget
Growth / 50–50015–30KFunnels & experiment cadence
Large / 500–5k22–40KSegmentation & budget efficiency
Platform / >5k30–52KGrowth model & cross-BU work

Abilities required

Five dimensions, level 1–5

Metric decomposition
5/5
Copy & creativity
4/5
Experimentation
4/5
Execution
5/5
Data literacy
4/5
Typical hiring routes
Campus0–3 yrsContent/community transfer
Typical team

2–8 with PM, paid & content teams

Open standalone page Entry updated 2026-11-11No. 08
→

Industries

Internet & Software Artificial Intelligence Financial Technology E-Commerce Healthcare Education & Training