Hey Justin! That's a great point. When a senior+ engineer is handling all of the system design, architecture, infrastructure as code, and ticket writing, many junior devs can be significant contributors with mentorship within their first year.

That said, I think it still depends on the pay; 2 senior engineers making $150,000 with that kind of support are likely to have been more productive than spending the same amount on 3 junior engineers making $100,000.