Principal Software Engineer Job Description
Overview
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Principal software engineer is a professional who leads the development team and applies the principles of software engineering to the design, development, maintenance, testing, and evaluation of computer software. Responsibilities of a principal software engineer include gathering requirements, defining system functionality, supervising team, propose project architecture and technologies, designing systems software website and applications, and writing code in various computer programming languages.
Steps to take to start your career as a Principal Software Engineer and other jobs like it
- Other degrees can work but the most probable path is with a computer science or software engineering bachelor’s degree. Depending on the specific job you are looking for information technology or computer and information systems can be good matches too.
- Writing code is one aspect. Another equally key element is the ability to translate product requirements into a usable system. You need to be able to communicate with others to understand the end goal for the software.
- There is a diverse set of environments to develop software. Small start-up, big team at a large company, developing internal use software, software as a service, the list is almost endless. Research what aligns with your interest and matches your strengths.
- One of the best ways to learn the profession is from those already in it. There is an art to the job that you will develop quicker by interacting with others with more or different experience. It’s also an opportunity to network which can turn into your next job.
Engineering Career:
I spent 25 years being a software engineer, mostly on the server side. I was working with APIs, backend development databases, SQL.
Software Engineer Requirements:
Most people are expected to have a computer science degree. It's not 100% true. Some of the best engineers do come in with a different type of degree. But more often than not, people are expected to have gone to college and work in computer science.
Career Skills:
I feel like people need to have both strong communication skills and also a good amount of humility, because we all have pros and cons. We all have things that we're good at. We have things that we're not the best at, but maybe there's somebody else on the team to do a better job. So the better that you are at knowing what your strengths and limitations are, the better it's going to be for the team. The ones who really want to improve their skills will seek out people who are better than they are and learn from them.
Career Tip:
Make sure that you enjoy breaking problems down, implementing the behavior of the system and code, talking to other people about technology, about pros and cons, all those kinds of things. It's going to help you be a much more successful software engineer.
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Education you need to become a Principal Software Engineer
These are the most common degrees or certificates earned by Jobtrees users prior to becoming a Principal Software Engineer
There may be other required degrees or certifications needed for this job. The below info shows you the most commonly desired education level from employers when hiring for this job.
- Master of Science (m.sc.) in Computer Science
- Bachelor of Science (b.sc.) in Computer Science
- Bachelor of Engineering (b.eng.) in Computer Engineering
- Doctor of Philosophy (PH.D.) in Computer Science
- Bachelor Degree in Computer Science
Annual Pay Estimate for Principal Software Engineer and Other Important Info
See how many years Principal Software Engineer's are in their job, how much they make, how long it took to get there and how available this job is in terms of open positions.
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Career Paths for Principal Software Engineer
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