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Principal Support Engineer Jobs (NOW HIRING)

SONAR

Senior Support Engineer

Austin, TX · On-site

A principal support engineer mentors junior team members, develops best practices for the department, and serves as a key contributor to the overall IT strategy. You are a proactive force for ...

RTX

Principal Technical Support Engineer

Mckinney, TX · On-site

We are looking to add to our team and desire a Principal Technical Support Engineer to be part of a team that provides the most advanced end-to-end solutions that detect, track, engage and neutralize ...

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$74K

$147.2K

$212.5K

How much do principal support engineer jobs pay per year?

As of Jun 5, 2026, the average yearly pay for principal support 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.

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

To thrive as a Principal Support Engineer, you need deep technical expertise in troubleshooting, systems analysis, and customer support, typically backed by a degree in computer science or a related field. Familiarity with ticketing systems, enterprise software platforms, and relevant certifications such as ITIL or specific vendor credentials is often required. Exceptional problem-solving abilities, leadership, and communication skills distinguish top performers in this role. These skills ensure complex technical issues are resolved efficiently, fostering customer satisfaction and maintaining system reliability.

How does a Principal Support Engineer typically collaborate with product and engineering teams to resolve complex customer issues?

Principal Support Engineers frequently act as a bridge between customers and internal product or engineering teams. When faced with intricate technical challenges, they escalate issues, provide detailed analysis, and share customer feedback directly with developers and product managers. This collaboration helps ensure that critical bugs are addressed promptly and that customer needs influence product improvements. Regular communication, joint troubleshooting sessions, and participation in post-mortem reviews are common aspects of this cross-functional teamwork.

What are Principal Support Engineers?

Principal Support Engineers are highly experienced technical professionals who provide advanced support for complex software or hardware products. They typically handle escalated issues, work closely with engineering teams to resolve critical problems, and may mentor or lead other support staff. Their role involves deep technical troubleshooting, customer communication, and contributing to product improvements based on customer feedback. Principal Support Engineers often serve as the highest point of technical escalation within a support organization.

What is the difference between Principal Support Engineer vs Support Engineer?

AspectPrincipal Support EngineerSupport Engineer
CredentialsTypically requires advanced technical certifications, extensive experience, and deep industry knowledgeEntry to mid-level certifications and experience in customer support or technical roles
Work EnvironmentHigh-level technical support, troubleshooting complex issues, often collaborating with engineering teamsProviding technical assistance, resolving customer issues, and maintaining support tickets
Employer & Industry UsageUsed in tech companies, software, hardware, and enterprise solutionsCommon across IT, software, and hardware support roles in various industries

The Principal Support Engineer typically handles complex technical problems, requires advanced certifications, and works closely with engineering teams. Support Engineers focus on resolving customer issues at a more operational level. The roles differ mainly in scope, experience, and technical depth, but both are essential in technical support hierarchies.

More about Principal Support Engineer jobs
What cities are hiring for Principal Support Engineer jobs? Cities with the most Principal Support Engineer job openings:
What states have the most Principal Support Engineer jobs? States with the most job openings for Principal Support Engineer jobs include:
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Principal Support Engineer jobs near you
Infographic showing various Principal Support Engineer job openings in the United States as of May 2026, with employment types broken down into 15% Full Time, and 85% Part Time. Highlights an 94% Physical, 2% Hybrid, and 4% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $147,220 per year, or $70.8 per hour.

Senior Support Engineer

SONAR

Austin, TX • On-site

Other

Life, Retirement, PTO

This job post has expired today. Applications are no longer accepted.

Job description

Who is Sonar?
Sonar is driving the future of agent-centric software development. As the leader in AI code review and verification, we solve a critical problem: ensuring that software generated by AI-assisted developers or autonomous agents is reliable, secure, and maintainable.
Integrating seamlessly with Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini, and Devin, we help over 75% of the Fortune 100 build trusted, reliable, compliant software. Customers who use Sonar are 44% less likely to report an outage due to AI-generated code.
We believe code verification is the critical missing link in the Agent-Centric Development Cycle (AC/DC). Industry giants like Nvidia, ServiceNow, Booking.com, Goldman Sachs, AstraZeneca, and Ford Motor Company count on us to provide independent, explainable, consistent review and governance of their AI-generated code via products like:
  • SonarQube: The world's leading AI code review and verification platform.
    • >
  • SonarQube Foundation Agent: Currently topping the leaderboards for agentic software repair.
    • >
  • SonarSweep & Sonar Context Augmentation: Providing the enterprise-grade context and constraints agents need to be truly effective.
    • >
Our team operates across global hubs in Austin, Bochum, Dubai, Geneva, London, Singapore, Tokyo, and Washington D.C. We move with a mindset we call CODE:
  • Committed to our customers and community.
    • >
  • Obsessed with quality.
    • >
  • Deliberate in our decisions.
    • >
  • Effective as one team.
    • >
With over $400M in revenue and profitable, fast-paced growth, we are building the backbone of the AI software revolution. If you're hungry to have an impact, want to build at a fast pace, and ready to work at the forefront of AI, we want to hear from you.
The Impact You Will Have:
As a Principal Support Engineer, you are a master of your craft. You have a deep understanding of the entire IT landscape, not just individual devices. You act as a critical player in maintaining the company's IT infrastructure and security. You are not just fixing a single user's issue; you are diagnosing complex system-wide problems and architecting solutions that prevent future issues. A principal support engineer mentors junior team members, develops best practices for the department, and serves as a key contributor to the overall IT strategy. You are a proactive force for security and stability, anticipating potential threats and fortifying the company's systems before a breach can even occur.
What You Will Do Daily:
  • You will manage the full lifecycle of employee IT support, from onboarding to offboarding, for a global company. This includes handling IT equipment logistics, user access management, and ensuring data integrity.
  • You'll serve as a senior point of contact for daily IT incidents and service requests, resolving issues, and identifying long-term solutions. Your role involves providing on-site and remote support, including potential travel to different office locations to assist with expansions or cover absences.
  • A key part of your work will be creating and maintaining comprehensive documentation to empower users and streamline internal processes. You'll also manage relationships with IT vendors and drive continuous improvement by analyzing support data to enhance tooling and policies. Finally, you'll oversee physical security systems, such as access control and security cameras.
The Experience You Will Need:
  • 10+ years of progressively responsible experience in a technical support or engineering role. This is a senior position influencing global strategy; it requires a deep, proven track record in global, fast-moving organizations.
  • Proven ability to handle complex, high-profile, and critical customer issues. This includes managing and driving a resolution for technical problems that have been escalated through multiple tiers of support.
  • Demonstrated experience in a leadership or mentorship capacity. This is crucial. The Principal Engineer isn't just an individual contributor; they are a "knowledge multiplier" who trains and elevates the skills of others on the team.
  • Experience in a "problem prevention" and "root cause analysis" role. A Principal Engineer doesn't just fix problems; they identify and address the underlying issues to prevent them from recurring. This includes analyzing trends, identifying system bottlenecks, and proposing long-term solutions.
  • Experience in creating and implementing support processes and best practices. This includes developing internal documentation, standard operating procedures, and knowledge base articles that improve team efficiency and customer outcomes.
  • Demonstrated success in leading and driving continuous improvement efforts. This could be a project to automate a repetitive task, improve incident response time, or streamline a troubleshooting process.
The Technical Expertise You Will Need:
  • Deep Subject Matter Expertise (SME): Possesses an expert-level understanding of end-user infrastructure and corporate domain architecture.
  • Advanced Troubleshooting and Debugging: Ability to navigate complex systems, analyze logs and traces, develop ad hoc reporting.
  • System-Level Thinking: deep architectural views of how different systems and components interact with each other to provide a service to our internal customers. This is about seeing the "big picture" of the IT infrastructure, not just a single endpoint.
  • Automation and Scripting: familiar with at least one scripting language (e.g., Python, PowerShell) to automate tasks, create diagnostic tools, and improve operational efficiency.
  • Cloud and Infrastructure Knowledge: A strong understanding of cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), virtualization, networking, and security concepts.
  • Familiarity with evaluation and support of AI tools for Helpdesk and Customer workflows.
  • Data Analysis: passion for analyzing available data and system metrics (e.g., using tools like Datadog, Splunk) to identify trends, pain points, and areas for improvement.
The Leadership Experience You Will Need:
  • Mentorship and Coaching: Track record of success teaching, guiding, and developing the skills of junior and senior support engineers.
  • Strategic Communication: Excellent written and verbal English communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences, including senior leadership and customers.
  • Proactive and Self-Driven: A self-starter who takes ownership of issues and actively seeks out opportunities to improve processes and prevent future problems.
  • Consensus Building: The ability to lead and influence diverse technical solution teams, building consensus across multiple viewpoints and priorities.
Benefits of Working with Sonar:
  • Flexible comprehensive employee benefit package.
  • We encourage usage of our robust time-off allocations. You will receive 23 days of PTO per calendar year (on a pro-rated basis depending on your employment start date), with additional time provided for sickness, life events and holidays.
  • We offer an exciting 401(k) plan that has a 4% match, fully vested on day one of participation.
  • Generous discretionary Company Growth Bonus, paid annually.
  • Fully paid parking in the heart of downtown Austin, Texas.
  • Global workforce with employees in 20+ countries representing 35+ unique nationalities.
  • We have an annual kick-off somewhere in the world where we meet to build relationships and goals for the company.
  • Monthly catered events, and team events.

We Value Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion:
At Sonar, we believe that our diversity is our strength. We are a global company that values and respects different backgrounds, perspectives, and cultures.
We are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment where everyone feels valued and empowered to contribute their best. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and welcome all qualified applicants, regardless of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status.
All offers of employment at Sonar are contingent upon the precise results of a comprehensive background check and reference verification conducted before the start date.
We do not currently support visa candidates in the US.
Applications that are submitted through agencies or third party recruiters will not be considered.
We value diversity, equity, and inclusion
At Sonar, we believe that our diversity is our strength. We are a global company that values and respects different backgrounds, perspectives, and cultures. We are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment where everyone feels valued and empowered to contribute their best. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and welcome all qualified applicants, regardless of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status.
If you need any accommodation, please reach out to us at [email protected].
All offers of employment at Sonar are contingent upon the results of a comprehensive background check and reference verification conducted before the start date.
We do not currently support visa candidates in the US.
Applications that are submitted through agencies or third party recruiters will not be considered.
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.

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