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What does a Principal Software Engineer do?

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Re: What does a Principal Software Engineer do?

#61

Post by opportune »

dkarl wrote: post #5

Always 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.

Yes, this. Principal means something vastly different between Microsoft and Google (where at Microsoft it means “Staff”). I even got recruiting emails from some not-popular SV firms for “Principal software engineer” when I had 3 years of experience.

Re: What does a Principal Software Engineer do?

#63

Post by herbturbo »

fatnoah wrote: post #27

I've been a "Principal Engineer" at a large software company and I feel like I embodied each of those archetypes at various points. At various points I was neck deep in critical code, doing the dog and pony show at the executive level, coordinating with other engineering teams and several product managers, and generally doing all of things required to keep pushing something forward. My relationship with my manager wa…

I am currently a principal engineer and have exactly the work life you described. Maybe in a bigger company the Principal is split from those archetypes but in my smallish team (within a large global org) I am the Principal because I do all of those things.

Re: What does a Principal Software Engineer do?

#64

Post by closeparen »

Konnstann wrote: post #20
throwarayes wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Title inflation is real. 2 years ago I was hired as Staff with pretty high bar to clear. This year I know a team where all the seniors complain they’re not Staff, and now half the team are Staff engs.

I was under the impression that Staff just meant you have some sort of leadership role, as opposed to just being an individual contributor. Is that not the case?

The only job in the tech industry that's not some sort of leadership role is Intern. Everyone leads and mentors. Senior Engineers at the level of a single team, with perhaps some cross-team impact. Staff Engineers at the level of an org with several teams.

Re: What does a Principal Software Engineer do?

#65

Post by hackingforfun »

For anyone who is a Principal Engineer at a FAANG, what do you do day to day?

I'm a Principal Engineer, not at a FAANG, and that mostly means i'm an expert at what I do and know the product inside and out, and I spend a good amount of time coding. I do also help others, answer questions, and deal with complex problems. I'd say I do 80% coding and 20% meetings / other things.

I interviewed somewhere else and they wanted me to do 50% coding and 50% meetings / other things. Was a bit surprised, since i'd personally rather code and keep my skills up.

My take is companies should have their top engineers spending a sigificant amount of time coding, or at least architecting, but I could imagine, and have read, that at FAANG sized companies it becomes more political? Also with so many employees I guess in theory the idea is to have Principals spend more time leveling up the rest of their workforce? In practice does that happen?

Re: What does a Principal Software Engineer do?

#66

Post by sumtechguy »

opportune wrote: post #61
dkarl wrote: post #5

Always 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.

Yes, this. Principal means something vastly different between Microsoft and Google (where at Microsoft it means “Staff”). I even got recruiting emails from some not-popular SV firms for “Principal software engineer” when I had 3 years of experience.

One company out there 'staff' is entry level. Whereas in all the companies I worked at 'staff' was a very prized title to have. Another company I worked at my title was basically just some random bits of roman numerals and something that sounded vaguely like a engineer. I usually just put sr software engineer/developer depending on the company and role.

Re: What does a Principal Software Engineer do?

#67

Post by herbturbo »

ryanianian wrote: post #37
amznbyebyebye wrote: post #25

Principal software engineer: the old grumpy guy who berates and borderline verbally abuses new/junior engineers and jeopardizes mental health across the org.

You can form a pithy but unnuanced and unhelpful caricature about every level. Junior software engineer: arrogant, self-entitled child who thinks they know everything but doesn't even know what they don't know but insists that their ideas are better, creating a people-hostile minefield across the org.

Who want to know when they are being promoted in every review.

Re: What does a Principal Software Engineer do?

#68

Post by alpha_squared »

Konnstann wrote: post #20
throwarayes wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Title inflation is real. 2 years ago I was hired as Staff with pretty high bar to clear. This year I know a team where all the seniors complain they’re not Staff, and now half the team are Staff engs.

I was under the impression that Staff just meant you have some sort of leadership role, as opposed to just being an individual contributor. Is that not the case?

Someone should tell HBO that, their Staff titles come before Senior Software Engineer, which is very confusing.

Re: What does a Principal Software Engineer do?

#69

Post by names_are_hard »

fasteddie31003 wrote: post #2

When 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

At the big tech company I work at, we're often told that even even senior is primarily a non-technical designation. Technical expertise and independence is expected of the level below senior, and in order to make the jump to senior you need to demonstrate leadership and other for skills - influencing others, project management, coordinating between teams, etc. Principal is a level above that that is kind of the same but more.

All this to say: every company is different.

Re: What does a Principal Software Engineer do?

#70

Post by darepublic »

When I started out as a developer the engineering part of the title wasn't as widely used. I was working at large enterprise and my manager started to use the term engineer to describe us to other teams, and my coworkers found it funny. It was chalked up as typical overblown language from my manager. Fast forward to now and everybody is an engineer. Also I have noticed a general inflation of the titles associated with it. Senior is the new Junior, etc. I'm sure its company dependent but my 2c
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