Blue collar IT. Racking and stacking, help desk, event space A/V, wrangling desktops and phones, installing WiFi access points in the office, etc.

Tech companies don't pay particularly well for these things, but their benefits packages are very competitive.

The SWE (Software Engineer) ladder doesn't have levels below 3 (AFAIK). Other ladders do.

I'm more curious about why a new hire with 20 years of experience starts at T3.

Maybe non-engineers?