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Principal Staff Engineer Jobs (NOW HIRING)

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 ...

Principal Engineer

Sunnyvale, CA · On-site

$180K - $230K/yr

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 ...

BSc in Software Development or equivalent industry experience Previously a Staff or Principal Engineer at a startup company 10+ years of experience in Python development Strong Python Asyncio ...

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 ...

Equivalent roles outside Vanta are often titled Staff, Senior Staff, Principal, or Senior Principal Engineer. What you'll do as a Staff Engineer Building New Products at Vanta: * Own the technical ...

BSc in Software Development or equivalent industry experience Previously a Staff or Principal Engineer at a startup company 10+ years of experience in Python development Strong Python Asyncio ...

Principal Duties and Responsibilities: • Leverages advanced Machine Learning knowledge to extend ... Staffing and recruiting agencies and individuals being represented by an agency are not authorized ...

... and staff stay informed and connected. Seamlessly integrating with EHRs and HR systems, Carefeed ... Carefeed is seeking a Principal Engineer to join our growing software engineering team. As one of ...

... and staff stay informed and connected. Seamlessly integrating with EHRs and HR systems, Carefeed ... Carefeed is seeking a Principal Engineer to join our growing software engineering team. As one of ...

What You Bring * 10+ years in software engineering, with at least 3+ years in a principal/staff-level IC role. * Proven experience architecting distributed systems, AI/ML platforms, or large-scale ...

Required : • 10+ years of hands-on software engineering experience, including 3+ years in a principal/staff-level role. • Expertise building distributed systems, event-driven architecture, and ...

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Principal Staff Engineer information

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$74K

$147.2K

$212.5K

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.
More about Principal Staff Engineer jobs
Infographic showing various Principal Staff Engineer job openings in the United States as of June 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 Staff Software Engineer, Development Infrastructure

Principal Staff Software Engineer, Development Infrastructure

LinkedIn

Bellevue, WA • On-site

$152K - $204K/yr

Full-time

Posted 26 days ago


Job description

Company Description
LinkedIn is the world's largest professional network, built to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce. Our products help people make powerful connections, discover exciting opportunities, build necessary skills, and gain valuable insights every day. We're also committed to providing transformational opportunities for our own employees by investing in their growth. We aspire to create a culture that's built on trust, care, inclusion, and fun - where everyone can succeed.
Join us to transform the way the world works.
Job Description
This role will be based in Bellevue, WA.
At LinkedIn, our approach to flexible work is centered on trust and optimized for culture, connection, clarity, and the evolving needs of our business. The work location of this role is hybrid, meaning it will be performed both from home and from a LinkedIn office on select days, as determined by the business needs of the team.
The Development infrastructure (DI) organization has the mission of making everyone in LinkedIn R&D more productive and successful. The charter includes all the core infrastructure to Discover, Write, Build, Test and Deploy code.
As a Principal Staff Software Engineer within DI, you will help envision the next generation, agent centric, large scale, development infrastructure at LinkedIn, providing a delightful experience for our R&D teams. As a key member of this team, you will get an opportunity to influence, transform, and create an amazing experience for engineers at LinkedIn. You will identify, develop, and lead strategic investments to make development iterations faster and make step function improvements in the lives of developers. You will have the opportunity to engage the industry-wide developer community and contribute to open-source software as well. The successful candidate will be a strong thought leader in the developer productivity space.
Responsibilities:
  • Grow, develop, and mentor a team that provides engineering systems which enable all LinkedIn developers to build services for LinkedIn members and Enterprise customers productively, with consistently high quality, and with minimal friction.
  • Work across Engineering to build relationships with other teams and use their feedback and understand their goals to build and prioritize a strategy and roadmap for your team, and for products that may span multiple teams.
  • Own the design, development, testing, deployment and craft of your team's infrastructure and systems, with high reliability and scalability.
  • Leverage your deep and broad technical expertise to mentor engineers and provide leadership on resolving complex technology issues.
  • Build operational excellence roadmaps, drive adoption of best practices from design to delivery, and improve developer feature/code velocity.

Basic Qualifications:
  • BA/BS Degree or higher in Computer Science or related technical discipline, or related practical experience
  • 10+ years of programming experience in Java, C++, C# or similar programming languages
  • 7+ years of experience building large-scale distributed applications
  • 7+ years in a technical leadership role overseeing large, cross-functional teams.
  • 3+ years of experience building developer infrastructure and services, including development and code collaboration environments, CI/CD platforms, and measuring software development productivity and quality.

Preferred Qualifications:
  • Dream big. Make big, bold moves to define and build the next generation of developer infra and inspire others to do the same
  • Excellent communication and presentation skills with an ability to communicate technical strategy and roadmap in a clear, precise, and actionable manner
  • Masters degree or higher in Computer Science or related field
  • Deep understanding of the Software development Life Cycle and related build and test systems.
  • Shipped several large-scale projects with multiple dependencies across teams
  • Engagement in coaching and mentoring fellow engineers in their careers
  • Experience attracting, retaining, and developing engineering and operations talent throughout the industry

Suggested Skills:
  • Technical Leadership
  • Experience developing technical strategy
  • Developer Tools & Automation
  • Quality & Testing Infrastructure

Qualifications
Basic Qualifications
  • BA/BS Degree or higher in Computer Science or related technical discipline, or related practical experience
  • 10+ years of programming experience in Java, C++, C# or similar programming languages
  • 7+ years of experience building large-scale distributed applications
  • 7+ years in a technical leadership role overseeing large, cross-functional teams.
  • 3+ years of experience building developer infrastructure and services, including development and code collaboration environments, CI/CD platforms, and measuring software development productivity and quality.

Preferred Qualifications
  • Dream big. Make big, bold moves to define and build the next generation of developer infra and inspire others to do the same
  • Excellent communication and presentation skills with an ability to communicate technical strategy and roadmap in a clear, precise, and actionable manner
  • Masters degree or higher in Computer Science or related field
  • Deep understanding of the Software development Life Cycle and related build and test systems.
  • Shipped several large-scale projects with multiple dependencies across teams
  • Engagement in coaching and mentoring fellow engineers in their careers
  • Experience attracting, retaining, and developing engineering and operations talent throughout the industry

Suggested Skills
  • Technical Leadership
  • Experience developing technical strategy
  • Developer Tools & Automation
  • Quality & Testing Infrastructure

You will Benefit from our Culture
We strongly believe in the well-being of our employees and their families. That is why we offer generous health and wellness programs and time away for employees of all levels.
LinkedIn is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices.
The pay range for this role is $226,000 to $369,000. Actual compensation packages are based on several factors that are unique to each candidate, including but not limited to skill set, depth of experience, certifications, and specific work location. This may be different in other locations due to differences in the cost of labor.
The total compensation package for this position may also include annual performance bonus, stock, benefits and/or other applicable incentive compensation plans. For more information, visit https://careers.linkedin.com/benefits.
Additional Information
Equal Opportunity Statement
We seek candidates with a wide range of perspectives and backgrounds and we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. LinkedIn considers qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, sex, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, citizenship, or any other legally protected class.
LinkedIn is committed to offering an inclusive and accessible experience for all job seekers, including individuals with disabilities. Our goal is to foster an inclusive and accessible workplace where everyone has the opportunity to be successful.
If you need a Reasonable Accommodation to search for a job opening, apply for a position, or participate in the interview process, connect with us and describe the specific Accommodation requested for a disability-related limitation.
Fill out an Accommodation request here: https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/b660a0327d044969abfd7a4e73d15c36
Reasonable accommodations are modifications or adjustments to the application or hiring process that would enable you to fully participate in that process. Examples of reasonable accommodations include but are not limited to:
  • Documents in alternate formats or read aloud to you
  • Having interviews in an accessible location
  • Being accompanied by a service dog
  • Having a sign language interpreter present for the interview

A request for an accommodation will be responded to within three business days. However, non-disability related requests, such as following up on an application, will not receive a response.
LinkedIn will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by LinkedIn, or (c) consistent with LinkedIn's legal duty to furnish information.
San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance
Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, LinkedIn will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
Pay Transparency Policy Statement
As a federal contractor, LinkedIn follows the Pay Transparency and non-discrimination provisions described at this link: https://lnkd.in/paytransparency.
Global Data Privacy Notice for Job Candidates
Please follow this link to access the document that provides transparency around the way in which LinkedIn handles personal data of employees and job applicants: https://legal.linkedin.com/candidate-portal.