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Principal Staff Engineer Jobs (NOW HIRING)

eNett

Principal Software Engineer - Data

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$200K - $250K/yr

Principal Staff Software Engineer - Data as a Service About the Role WEX is transforming into a data-driven enterprise through its modern Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) platform. At the core of this ...

Motorola

Principal Staff Systems Engineer

Washington, DC · Remote

$120K - $130K/yr

Federal Systems Engineering Group designs and implements the innovative communications solutions that make a difference in the moments that matter. As the solution architecture and technical ...

ATI

Principal Staff Mechanical Engineer

Woburn, MA · On-site

The candidate will work in a small team of engineers building a novel robotics and automation solution. As we are a small startup the role will have a large amount of autonomy and the candidate must ...

ATI

Principal Staff Mechanical Engineer

Woburn, MA · On-site

The candidate will work in a small team of engineers building a novel robotics and automation solution. As we are a small startup the role will have a large amount of autonomy and the candidate must ...

Apidel Technologies

Staff Engineer

Portage, MI

Staff Engineer, Engineering - Individual Contributor Technical Responsibilities: Conduct or design ... In code reviews apply design principals, coding standards and best practices. Qualifications ...

GHX

OR

$150K - $214K/yr

Prior Principal/Staff Engineer experience What We're Looking For You come from an application development background and understand how data fits into the broader application architecture. You're ...

Knightscope

Principal Engineer

Sunnyvale, CA · On-site

Required Qualifications * 8+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 4 years in a systems architecture or principal/staff engineering role. * Proven experience architecting large ...

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How much do principal staff engineer jobs pay per year?

As of Jun 9, 2026, the average yearly pay for principal staff engineer in the United States is $147,220.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $118,500.00 and $173,000.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

How do Principal Staff Engineers typically influence technical direction and mentor teams within an organization?

Principal Staff Engineers play a pivotal role in shaping the technical vision of a company by driving architectural decisions, establishing best practices, and setting long-term technology strategies. They often mentor and guide other engineers, providing technical leadership through code reviews, design discussions, and knowledge sharing. Collaboration with cross-functional teams, including product managers and engineering leads, is a key part of the role, ensuring that technical solutions align with business goals and are scalable. This position provides opportunities for significant impact, but also comes with the challenge of balancing hands-on work with strategic oversight.

What are Principal Staff Engineers?

Principal Staff Engineers are senior-level engineers who lead technical initiatives, set engineering standards, and provide expert guidance across teams or departments. They are responsible for tackling complex technical challenges, influencing architectural decisions, and mentoring other engineers. Unlike managers, they focus on technical leadership rather than people management, ensuring the organization’s technology strategy aligns with its business goals. Their role often involves collaborating with cross-functional teams to drive innovation and maintain technical excellence.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a Principal Staff Engineer, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Principal Staff Engineer, you need deep technical expertise in your engineering domain, a proven track record of leading complex projects, and typically a relevant degree such as a BS or MS in engineering or computer science. Mastery of industry-standard tools, architectures, and platforms (such as AWS, Kubernetes, or advanced programming frameworks) is expected, along with familiarity with methodologies like Agile or DevOps and, in some fields, advanced certifications. Exceptional communication, mentorship, strategic thinking, and collaboration skills distinguish top performers in this leadership role. These skills are critical to driving technical vision, influencing organizational direction, and ensuring the success of large-scale engineering initiatives.
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Principal Staff Engineer jobs near you
Infographic showing various Principal Staff Engineer job openings in the United States as of May 2026, with employment types broken down into 100% Full Time. Highlights an 67% In-person, and 33% Hybrid job distribution, with an average salary of $147,220 per year, or $70.8 per hour.

Principal Software Engineer - Data

eNett

San Francisco, CA • On-site

$200K - $250K/yr

Full-time

Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, Retirement, PTO

Posted 24 days ago

Job description

Principal Staff Software Engineer - Data as a ServiceAbout the Role

WEX is transforming into a data-driven enterprise through its modern Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) platform. At the core of this strategy is a need for world-class technical leadership-engineers who can see across domains, design foundational systems, and set the architectural direction for years to come.

As a Principal Staff Software Engineer, you will play a pivotal role in shaping WEX's DaaS platform end-to-end. You will drive the unification of data acquisition, semantic modeling, and data products, ensuring they operate together as a coherent, scalable, and trusted foundation for analytics, AI, and customer-facing experiences.

This is not just a technical role-it is a platform architect and multiplier role, where you'll be responsible for defining cross-cutting patterns, guiding teams across domains, and raising the technical bar across WEX's data ecosystem. If you're motivated by solving platform problems at global scale, influencing enterprise direction, and leaving behind systems that endure, this is your role.

What You'll Do

  • Architect the DaaS platform end-to-end: Define the next generation of WEX's enterprise data stack spanning ingestion, semantic data modeling, metadata, and product delivery.

  • Establish platform standards: Set reusable frameworks for ingestion, modeling, lineage, observability, and access control that accelerate adoption across domains.

  • Guide technical strategy at scale: Partner with senior engineering, product, and business leaders to align data architecture with WEX's strategic objectives.
    Solve for scale, reliability, and trust: Design systems that handle billions of records, guarantee semantic consistency, and deliver auditable, governed data assets.
    Mentor and multiply: Coach senior staff engineers and architects, instilling best practices in distributed systems, platform reliability, and semantic clarity.

  • Drive innovation: Explore and incorporate modern open-source and cloud-native technologies (e.g., Spark, Iceberg, Kafka, Delta, DBT, Ray, ML-ready data services).

  • Be the bridge: Collaborate across Data Acquisition, Semantic Modeling, Data Products, and Governance teams to ensure WEX's data is trusted, consistent, and usable across every business domain.

What You Bring

  • 12-15+ years of experience in software or platform engineering, with a proven track record of building and scaling large-scale data platforms.
    Expertise in distributed systems, data acquisition, and semantic modeling, with architectural ownership of systems processing tens of millions to billions of records per day.

  • Demonstrated ability to set cross-domain architectural standards and influence adoption across multiple engineering teams.

  • Strong background in data lifecycle management (versioning, auditability, observability, lineage, reproducibility).

  • Deep experience with modern data ecosystems: streaming (Kafka, Flink), batch (Spark, DBT), storage (Iceberg, Delta), orchestration (Airflow, Dagster), and APIs.

  • Exceptional communication and leadership skills-you can inspire engineers, influence executives, and build consensus across technical and business stakeholders.

  • A passion for creating platforms that endure: trusted, consistent, and empowering for analytics, AI, and products enterprise-wide.

The base pay range represents the anticipated low and high end of the pay range for this position. Actual pay rates will vary and will be based on various factors, such as your qualifications, skills, competencies, and proficiency for the role. Base pay is one component of WEX's total compensation package. Most sales positions are eligible for commission under the terms of an applicable plan. Non-sales roles are typically eligible for a quarterly or annual bonus based on their role and applicable plan. WEX's comprehensive and market competitive benefits are designed to support your personal and professional well-being. Benefits include health, dental and vision insurances, retirement savings plan, paid time off, health savings account, flexible spending accounts, life insurance, disability insurance, tuition reimbursement, and more. For more information, check out the "About Us" section.Pay Range: $200,600.00 - $250,400.00

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