Workplace Jiujitsu #13: The New Manager's Guide to Junior Engineer Retention

Junior engineers leave for different reasons than senior engineers. Understanding this difference is the key to building retention strategies that actually work.

You just became a manager. Your team includes junior engineers. And you're realizing that keeping them engaged is harder than expected. The good news? Junior engineer retention isn't mysterious. It's systematic.

Senior engineers tend to leave when they're bored, underpaid, or lacking autonomy. Junior engineers leave when they're not learning, feel invisible, or can't see a path forward. What keeps a senior engineer happy might leave a junior engineer feeling stuck.

So your strategy has to shift by recognizing that early-career engineers need more structure around growth, learning, and context.

Start with visibility. Create explicit skill frameworks. Have monthly growth conversations. Call out specific improvements: “Your debugging approach has gotten much more systematic.” Show them examples of what senior-level work looks like and explain the difference.

Audit how work is distributed. If your juniors are only getting safe, repetitive tasks, you're holding them back. Look for chances to pair them on complex work and let them own smaller features end-to-end.

Make learning intentional. Go beyond standups. Schedule time for technical deep dives. Document decisions and internal architecture. Encourage courses, side projects, and conferences. Time spent learning is time invested in retention.

And build psychological safety. Model asking questions yourself. Set up regular forums where curiosity is expected. When they do ask for help, coach them through your thinking instead of just giving answers.

Each month, ask yourself: Can this engineer articulate what they’ve learned? Are they stretched by their current projects? Are they receiving feedback beyond code reviews? Are they participating in discussions and asking thoughtful questions?

Watch for early signs of disengagement: fewer questions in meetings, shorter code review responses, less initiative, more surface-level conversation. If you spot them, don’t wait. Realign their growth path, check in directly, and rebuild clarity around trajectory.

Junior engineer retention is about creating an environment where they can actually see themselves becoming better engineers.

If you can’t answer “How is this person better today than they were three months ago?" then it’s time to adjust your approach.

What’s one thing you’re going to check on with your junior engineers this week?