There isn't a universally agreed upon standard.

   At the company I work at, for example, I don't have an official title; I
just do whatever needs to get done. Sometimes that's programming, sometimes
designing, sometimes documenting existing systems, sometimes it's research
and development, sometimes it's interviewing and conducting tests for other
applicants to the company, and so on.

   - Oliver

A typical career path goes like this:

white box tester
junior programmer
programmer
senior programmer
technical lead
program manager
technical lead
senior programmer
technical writer
fry cook

There is no next step.  Programmer is the ultimate title.

;) Opalinski
opalpa@gmail.com
http://www.geocities.com/opalpaweb/

The way it usually works is - your first programming job is low-pay - but
you get experience.
After about 2 to 4 years, you're worth double the money you started at - but
the company that hired you will not pay you that much - so you may need to
go to another job - at double the salary.
Don't look for job titles - look for good work conditions + benefits + pay.
Its a lot better to look forward to a day at work, than dreading it.

There is no universally defined progression.

At one job I had, the technical ladder looked something like this:

Associate Software Engineer
Software Engineer
Senior Software Engineer
Staff Software Engineer
Director of Engineering
Vice President of Engineering

The allowed pay range at each level was quite broad, and there was a great
deal of overlap in the ranges. That is, the highest allowable salary at the
"Software Engineer" level was just about equal to the lowest allowable
salary at Staff Software Engineer -- two notches up. And this was true of
the entire ladder. Additionally, each level had a job description, but they
were mostly similar. What differed was the "expected amount of experience"
and "scope of work" and "amount of expected supervision" at each level.
(More experience, broader scope, and less supervision at each level.) At
this company, the promotion policy was "the candidate must already be
performing the duties of someone with a title at the next level up.
Promotions are awarded in recognition of this fact at the regularly
scheduled performance review cycle."

-- Adam Maass