I’ve always changed jobs. It’s a lot easier to get a “promotion” as part of an interview when you control the narrative than going through the promo process.

Besides because of salary compression and inversion, even if you do get an internal promotion, you will probably make less than someone coming in at your level.

But I’ll tell you the lack of a framework does not change anything. Then all you get is “in my judgment, you haven’t proven yourself to be senior yet.”

And the result is the same: the person leaves to a place that will appreciate them.