How to hire a principal accountant

How to hire a principal accountant, step by step

Here's a step-by-step principal accountant hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a principal accountant job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new principal accountant
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a principal accountant do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you post your principal accountant job, you should take the time to determine what type of worker your business needs. While certain jobs definitely require a full-time employee, it's sometimes better to find a principal accountant for hire on a part-time basis or as a contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   Hiring the perfect principal accountant also involves considering the ideal background you'd like them to have. Depending on what industry or field they have experience in, they'll bring different skills to the job. It's also important to consider what levels of seniority and education the job requires and what kind of salary such a candidate would likely demand.

   This list shows salaries for various types of principal accountants.

   Type of Principal Accountant	Description	Hourly rate
   Principal Accountant	Accountants and auditors prepare and examine financial records. They ensure that financial records are accurate and that taxes are paid properly and on time... Show more	$31-64
   Accounting Analyst	An accounting analyst is responsible for supporting the accounting operations of an organization, analyzing financial transactions and financial statements, and resolving account discrepancies. Accounting analysts interpret financial data by consolidating account transactions, performing account reconciliation, and managing account receivables... Show more	$20-37
   Accountant/Consultant	Accountants/consultants perform accounting tasks for organizations or companies. The accountants improve accounting practices and prepare financial statements at the end of every year... Show more	$22-41

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • GAAP
   • CPA
   • Reconciliations
   • Business Development
   • Account Management
   • Internal Controls
   • Financial Reports
   • General Ledger
   • Project Management
   • SOX
   • CRM
   • Client Relationships
   • External Auditors
   • Hyperion

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage derivative accounting at global level and ensure accounting and economic hedging objectives are align.
   • Apply and explain GAAP principles to students, departments and vendors.
   • Collect and verify project assumptions and overhead data, ensure Hyperion reporting system capture accurate data during planning process.
   • Maintain Medicaid regulations, guidelines, and manuals pertaining to community mental health services.
   • Apply changes to medical billing processes ensuring all state and federal regulations are followed surrounding specifically Medicaid products.

   More principal accountant duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in the principal accountant job description is a good way to get more applicants. A principal accountant salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

   For example, the average salary for a principal accountant in Utah may be lower than in New Jersey, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level principal accountant. Additionally, a principal accountant with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

   Average principal accountant salary

   $94,808yearly

   $45.58 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level principal accountant salary

   $66,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 25, 2025

   Average principal accountant salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	New Jersey	$117,913	$57
   2	New York	$115,313	$55
   3	District of Columbia	$114,949	$55
   4	California	$112,619	$54
   5	Rhode Island	$106,557	$51
   6	Massachusetts	$106,306	$51
   7	Maryland	$98,414	$47
   8	Delaware	$98,352	$47
   9	New Hampshire	$95,893	$46
   10	Pennsylvania	$93,189	$45
   11	Virginia	$92,207	$44
   12	Nevada	$88,165	$42
   13	Texas	$87,378	$42
   14	Georgia	$84,313	$41
   15	Michigan	$83,917	$40
   16	Ohio	$83,334	$40
   17	Illinois	$82,935	$40
   18	Louisiana	$82,020	$39
   19	Florida	$80,009	$38
   20	Washington	$73,753	$35

   Average principal accountant salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Google	$129,736	$62.37	41
   2	Intuit	$118,643	$57.04	85
   3	Bristol-Myers Squibb	$116,073	$55.80	18
   4	Amazon	$114,198	$54.90	341
   5	BNY Mellon	$113,968	$54.79	5
   6	Florida Power and Light	$107,020	$51.45	32
   7	BMC Software	$106,763	$51.33	2
   8	NJ Transit	$106,708	$51.30
   9	Medtronic	$105,075	$50.52	243
   10	Abt Associates	$103,697	$49.85
   11	Cadence Design Systems	$102,962	$49.50	34
   12	Halliburton	$101,802	$48.94	2
   13	The Bonadio Group	$101,577	$48.84	32
   14	Pegasystems	$101,236	$48.67	2
   15	Randstad North America, Inc.	$99,664	$47.92	23
   16	TalentBurst	$98,884	$47.54	1
   17	The Coca-Cola Company	$98,525	$47.37
   18	Oxford Solutions	$98,255	$47.24
   19	Sabre	$94,642	$45.50	4
   20	American Family Insurance	$94,069	$45.23	1

4. Writing a principal accountant job description

   A good principal accountant job description should include a few things:

   • Summary of the role
   • List of responsibilities
   • Required skills and experience

   Including a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager is also appreciated by candidates. Here's an example of a principal accountant job description:

   Principal accountant job description example

   As a full spectrum AWS integrator, we assist hundreds of companies to realize the value, efficiency, and productivity of the cloud. We take customers on their journey to enable, operate, and innovate using cloud technologies - from migration strategy to operational excellence and immersive transformation.
   
   If you like a challenge, you'll love it here, because we're solving complex business problems every day, building and promoting great technology solutions that impact our customers' success. The best part is, we're committed to you and your growth, both professionally and personally.
   
   The Professional Services team delivers a wide range of projects for both clients and business partners. Our Account Principals are the cornerstone of our delivery success, overseeing our most strategic accounts. The Consulting Director owns the professional relationship with our customers, acting as their advocate, trusted adviser and point of escalation for all issues arising from the delivery of the Professional Services. The Account Principal is empowered to make key delivery decisions and works closely with technical resources as well as our Engagement Managers to ensure our customers experience successful outcomes. The role includes aspects of business development, client management, and technical delivery across a broad array of client accounts. The Account Principal has full accountability for the successful delivery of Professional Services projects.
   
   If you get a thrill working with cutting-edge technology and love to help solve customers' problems, we'd love to hear from you. It's time to rethink the possible. Are you ready?
   
   What you'll be doing:Working alongside sales leadership and delivery teams to oversee successful engagements and help identify and pursue new opportunities with existing clients Develop deep professional relationships with clients and act as the single point of contact for client ExecutivesWork with Engagement Managers to plan the delivery of projects, including a budget, delivery resources, and responsibilities Identify, mitigate, or escalate delivery risks and issues Act as the cloud services and technology evangelist, envisioning and inspiring customers throughout their journey Support occasional sales pursuits for new logo customers in specific areas of experience or expertise
   
   Qualifications & Experience:10+ years of consulting/technical delivery experience with 5+ years of client facing responsibilities within a professional services environment Ownership of client relationships at senior management level within the enterprise space Capability to absorb complex technical information, analyze and effectively communicate concepts to a wide-range of audiences Direct experience executing successful business transformation projects with measurable results, technical delivery, team leadership, and senior client relationship management Depth of experience with AWS selling and delivering Technology services background focused on professional services Willingness to travel 50% of the time and more on occasion
   Technology We are the multicloud solutions experts. We combine our expertise with the world's leading technologies - across applications, data and security - to deliver end-to-end solutions. We have a proven record of advising customers based on their business challenges, designing solutions that scale, building and managing those solutions, and optimizing returns into the future. Named a best place to work, year after year according to Fortune, Forbes and Glassdoor, we attract and develop world-class talent. Join us on our mission to embrace technology, empower customers and deliver the future. More on Rackspace Technology Though we're all different, Rackers thrive through our connection to a central goal: to be a valued member of a winning team on an inspiring mission. We bring our whole selves to work every day. And we embrace the notion that unique perspectives fuel innovation and enable us to best serve our customers and communities around the globe. We welcome you to apply today and want you to know that we are committed to offering equal employment opportunity without regard to age, color, disability, gender reassignment or identity or expression, genetic information, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity status, military or veteran status, nationality, ethnic or national origin, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or any legally protected characteristic. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find the right principal accountant for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with principal accountants they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit principal accountants who meet your education requirements.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your principal accountant job on Zippia to find and attract quality principal accountant candidates.
   • Use niche websites such as efinancialcareers, financialjobsweb.com, careerbank, financial job bank.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting principal accountants requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match your ideal candidate profile. If you think a candidate is good enough for the next step, you can move on to the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new principal accountant

   Once you've selected the best principal accountant candidate for the job, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, this letter should include details about the benefits and perks you offer the candidate. Ensuring that your offer is competitive is essential, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and you should be open to discussion. After you reach an agreement, the final step is formalizing the agreement with a contract.

   It's also good etiquette to follow up with applicants who don't get the job by sending them an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new principal accountant. Human Resources and the hiring manager should complete Employee Action Forms. Human Resources should also ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc., and that new employee files are created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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