The Senior Engineer Portfolio: What to Put on GitHub in 2026

In 2026, reviewers check your GitHub before the phone screen, every time. They're not looking for stars. They're looking for one repo that answers: 'Can this person make decisions?'

Pin one repo that shows judgment

A well-documented 400-line CLI with a clear design rationale in the README beats a 4,000-star tutorial fork. Reviewers want to see you chose a problem and shipped a crisp solution.

What screams junior

• Only tutorial forks and coursework.
• Empty READMEs — or README boilerplate generators.
• 50 half-started projects, zero finished ones.

What screams senior

• One focused project with issues triaged and closed.
• Visible tradeoff discussion in PRs or design docs.
• Tests, CI badges, and a changelog people can read.