A few months ago, I accepted a position with the title of Lead API Engineer. The job description says I am to provide technical leadership and guidance for my team (though not in a managerial capacity). As a new graduate or entry-level engineer, you can expect to start at the bottom of the totem pole. Roles and responsibilities is similar to testing terminilogy everyone means something different with the same words. Principal definitely does not mean creator though- it means a high level dev/architect, although I know companies where staff is a higher rank. However, where I work we have principals who are not above leads. For example, at Apple, its not uncommon for an engineer to spend 7-10 years on one product before becoming an engineering manager. Stack Exchange network consists of 181 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers. } Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I should handle this. SE1>SE2>SE3>Sr.SE Sr.SE>Principal SE>Principal SE2 Sr.SE>Tech Lead>Manager>Director>Sr. Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action. For example, most companies have the next step of staff engineer after the senior position, which later pipes into a lead engineer or principal engineer position. Typically, lead consultants are in charge of supervising a team of junior/'regular' level consultants, while principal consultants are at the top of the organization and supervise a number of teams, each headed by a lead consultant. Did the drapes in old theatres actually say "ASBESTOS" on them? The percentage of their time spent coding differs from one person to the next, but averages around 20%. #_form_7_ ._form_element._clear { clear:both; width:100%; float:none; } It's usually not a team management position. If youre interested in joining the engineering field, you may wonder what your job might look like in the future and how you can advance your career after starting as an engineer. Typically, they've been an engineer for several years and have a vast portfolio of projects, making them the most skilled engineer on a project at one time. @media all and (min-width:320px) and (max-width:667px) { #_form_7_._inline-form._inline-style ._inline-style._button-wrapper { margin-top:20px !important; margin-left:0 !important; } In most engineering organizations, the engineering manager is responsible for a team of engineers and reports to a director of engineering or VP of engineering. To reflect all those responsibilities, my title shall be "updated" from "Senior Data Scientist" to well that is the question. Principal vs. senior engineer. Principal Engineer in Climate System (HVAC) Design Cranfield 29.60p/h Equivalent to 60.000pa We are recruiting for a Principal Engineer in Climate System (HVAC) Design for one of our automotive clients based in Cranfield. It's an ambiguous designation, since every programmer is on staff and is technical. The trap for a senior engineer is to think that just doing more cool projects and producing more code will lead to a promotion. This may be in the form of automation of processes . Upper management includes executives who report directly to the CEO and make critical decisions about strategy, growth, operations, production, and other areas of an organization. planning and developing engineering strategies to help a company grow and succeed. Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience. #_form_7_._inline-style input[type="text"],#_form_7_._inline-style input[type="date"] { padding:15px 12px; font-size: 20px;} Principal engineers and senior engineers are both crucial for ensuring engineering teams can collaboratively research, design, analyze, and inspect structures according to client requirements. I guess it varies a lot. You will be promoted through the ranks as you gain experience and contribute to successful projects. As companies grow, so does the need for management, leading to an increase in the number of managers within each discipline. It may be common among engineers to hear that the company is growing too fast. Login. In the past couple of years. Metal 3D printing has rapidly emerged as a key technology in modern design and manufacturing, so its critical educational institutions include it in their curricula to avoid leaving students at a disadvantage as they enter the workforce. Other times it was a place to move a very experienced person so that younger employees could gain experience. I have been working as a Senior software engineer for the last 5 years. @Fattie and compliment v. complement plus so many others - down to education or the latest excuse: autocorrect (aka auto f-up). They are responsible for designing and developing products, as well as overseeing the work of junior engineers. #_form_7_ ._error-arrow { position:absolute; width:0; height:0; } I was asked to what exactly. Exactly. This leadership is backed by feedback on every level - you will hear this from junior engineer collaborating with a principal for a few weeks and from their experienced engineering manager at the same time. The Solutions Architect is more of a sales engineering role. They oversee department managers and work with them to ensure that projects are on schedule and within budget. To do this, they draw on ground-breaking technical experience, an understanding of risk, and an ability to navigate different perspectives and priorities. Morson Talent. Why are players required to record the moves in World Championship Classical games? What are the advantages of running a power tool on 240 V vs 120 V? I have read somewhere that a "Principal " gets more money while a "Lead " is just "nice sound", but I don't know. Heres what we learned. Regarding "member of technical staff," my understanding (as the original poster of this question) is that it's used to represent a high position, usually in research. *Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. We could, but I do not see how it would help the op if his HR manager thinks it means aomething else. The Vice President of engineering reports to the CEO. Software Quality Assurance & Testing Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for software quality control experts, automation engineers, and software testers. Not sure if important, but I work in Germany, while my title is English. Difference between DevOps and Software Configuration Management, Short story about swapping bodies as a job; the person who hires the main character misuses his body. And they give technical performance reviews, aiming to improve the technical capacity of the entire engineering organization. Recently, one of the developers on my team (for whom I am to provide technical guidance) was promoted and assigned the title of Principal Engineer. Principal means you are the actual inventor / creator / source of the technology. The flip side for not having this knowledge was that when I changed that company I got one of the lowest designations of my present company. Nathan Brunner is a labor market expert. Lead/Princ. The meaning of job titles is entirely dependent on the company in question. How can I get the intuition to make the right decision? Your organizations tech visionary, Why your path to engineering management doesnt have to be traditional, Role and Influence: The IC trajectory beyond Staff, What is senior IC? DMTS(D for Distinguished) - executive director level - very few of . See how to look for high-impact ownership for engineers. A principal engineer has full autonomy with excellent communication structure. To clarify GrandmasterB's point here - I'm presently a Senior Software Engineer. Scan this QR code to download the app now. The rank above is principal engineer. Am I wrong? #_form_7_ ._error-html { margin-bottom:10px; } Has to be taken in context, there is no "official" meaning to these words. A staff engineer is a professional engineer who supervises other engineers and technicians. The reporting line varies from one company to another, but they have a certain level of autonomy: usually, they report to a manager but control their own day-to-day activities. #_form_7_ ._form-title { font-size:1.2em; } What is the Russian word for the color "teal"? A senior engineer is a highly experienced engineer who has been with the company for many years. Are there any differences between the roles of Principal QA Engineer and Test/Project Lead? My responsibilities include thinking about future projects, talking to customers if required (e.g. [CDATA[/* >