I would say yes and no. The career progression of FSE is Engineer -> lead Engineer (for a single process module) -> Manager or Principle Engineer depending on what route you want to take. As for how fast you can get promoted, it depends on performance and luck (i would say 70:30) which is probably the same for all other engineering role. The difference is that customer feedback plays a factor in your performance. If you customer feedback is good, then good for you. But if customers are bad and like to kpkb, then just suck thumb and continue doing what you are supposed to do. So sometimes you might find some people can feel stuck in a position for some time while others can get promoted faster than expected. But on the plus side, there are little to no office politics and if you do feel you are stuck, you could always give a customers a nudge and try to get a job on their side with a higher pay. Hope this helps