What does a Principal Software Engineer do?
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What does a Principal Software Engineer do?
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Re: What does a Principal Software Engineer do?
#2When my partner and I first meet we were both senior engineers at larger SF tech companies. Three years later she is a principle engineer and I stayed a senior engineer. She and I agree that everything past a senior engineer is political. She is much better and handling the complex social dynamics of the management class. It's kinda a game of finding the least common denominator that works best by not pissing off people and making everyone maximally happy. That often means the decisions you make you know are not the most optimal, but the most politically optimal. Just our observations.
Re: What does a Principal Software Engineer do?
#3I'd definitely recommend https://staffeng.com/ for anyone who's making the transition from senior to staff+. I found it invaluable when I made that transition.
Re: What does a Principal Software Engineer do?
#4When my partner and I first meet we were both senior engineers at larger SF tech companies. Three years later she is a principle engineer and I stayed a senior engineer. She and I agree that everything past a senior engineer is political. She is much better and handling the complex social dynamics of the management class. It's kinda a game of finding the least common denominator that works best by not pissing off peo…
> That often means the decisions you make you know are not the most optimal, but the most politically optimal.
Not intended to quibble, but to me that smacks of the dreaded "mid-level management" tier.
As a lead or principle, I describe what I do as being a "fire-and-forget resource". I build everything myself and don't require supervision. I will deliver regardless and am also able to justify my decisions. People seem to be happy so far.
That process is almost completely independent from meat-space concerns, aside from the requisite UX design.
Re: What does a Principal Software Engineer do?
#5Always keep in mind that sometimes the "principal engineer" title is just a company's only way of hiring a senior engineer because their pay bands are so far below market rate. Don't let a description of a Google principal engineer scare you away from inquiring and applying for principal engineer positions at other companies.
Source: have been that person.
Re: What does a Principal Software Engineer do?
#6When my partner and I first meet we were both senior engineers at larger SF tech companies. Three years later she is a principle engineer and I stayed a senior engineer. She and I agree that everything past a senior engineer is political. She is much better and handling the complex social dynamics of the management class. It's kinda a game of finding the least common denominator that works best by not pissing off peo…
> She and I agree that everything past a senior engineer is political. She is much better and handling the complex social dynamics of the management class. It's kinda a game of finding the least common denominator that works best by not pissing off people and making everyone maximally happy. That often means the decisions you make you know are not the most optimal, but the most politically optimal.
A colleague of mine at previous company once described all this in two words "managing expectations" :)
Re: What does a Principal Software Engineer do?
#7Same things as senior but more. Source: I've been one.
Senior and principal prefixes are there to provide respect in orgs that rely on titles for respect (possibly a sign of toxicity), or a way to explain to HR why someone's salary is higher.
Re: What does a Principal Software Engineer do?
#8Always keep in mind that sometimes the "principal engineer" title is just a company's only way of hiring a senior engineer because their pay bands are so far below market rate. Don't let a description of a Google principal engineer scare you away from inquiring and applying for principal engineer positions at other companies. Source: have been that person.
I'm stuck inside a 5000 person IT company hiding inside a much larger consumer product company, and 3/5 of us are all 'principal' engineers by title. This includes a bevy of old timers who exist just to run a few ancient shell scripts and otherwise keep a chair warm. Although they are shrinking quickly, they still vastly outnumber us coming in from the software industry. There is no title above principal here; we are hired into principal and that's it until we invariably get bored or stressed out and leave.
We have other titles above principal, which I wont name here because you could figure out where I work, but suffice, those titles are gated and only promotable by multiple director consensus. It keeps their numbers very, very low. My department wont mint a new one, but only hire outsiders already at the title.
Re: What does a Principal Software Engineer do?
#9When my partner and I first meet we were both senior engineers at larger SF tech companies. Three years later she is a principle engineer and I stayed a senior engineer. She and I agree that everything past a senior engineer is political. She is much better and handling the complex social dynamics of the management class. It's kinda a game of finding the least common denominator that works best by not pissing off peo…
> That often means the decisions you make you know are not the most optimal, but the most politically optimal. Not intended to quibble, but to me that smacks of the dreaded "mid-level management" tier. As a lead or principle, I describe what I do as being a "fire-and-forget resource". I build everything myself and don't require supervision. I will deliver regardless and am also able to justify my decisions. People se…
> As a lead or principle, I describe what I do as being a "fire-and-forget resource". I build everything myself and don't require supervision. I will deliver regardless and am also able to justify my decisions. People seem to be happy so far.
Terminology is subjective of course, but:
I would also expect the above from a "senior" developer.
I would expect a "lead" developer to additionally be involved in leading a team and coordinating work within that team. (either from a project, people or tech perspective, or all/both).
I would expect a "principle" developer to be working at a higher level coordinating work between multiple teams and making architectural decisions that cut across the whole org or a large subsection of it at a larger company.
Re: What does a Principal Software Engineer do?
#10Always keep in mind that sometimes the "principal engineer" title is just a company's only way of hiring a senior engineer because their pay bands are so far below market rate. Don't let a description of a Google principal engineer scare you away from inquiring and applying for principal engineer positions at other companies. Source: have been that person.
Or more generally: Job titles aren’t portable between companies in the tech industry. Don’t assume that they mean the same thing at every company. Don’t assume a company is underpaying people just because they’re giving out Principal Software Engineer titles. Principal Software Engineer at one company could just be the equivalent of Senior Software Engineer II at another company.
On the hiring side, everyone knows that titles only indicate relative seniority within a company. Interviewers must actually interview candidates to determine what their role was, how experienced they are, and other factors.
It can be a warning flag, however, if a company is giving titles like “Principal Staff Software Architect” to someone who is clearly junior enough that they would require a lot of mentoring and guidance if they were hired. It’s common that candidates are resistant to downleveling their titles when changing jobs, so handing out enormously inflated titles is one way companies try to trap junior employees in their companies. At least until they realize that nobody cares about their inflated titles and they still have to pass the same tech interviews as everyone else.