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What is a principal design engineer and how to become one
The role of a principal design engineer is to manage and direct the work of a design team throughout a project, from conception to finish. The projects they handle usually have to do with designing systems, networks, processes, and other components and hardware for various purposes.
Amongst other things, they must work in such a way that does not exceed the time or financial limits, whilst also achieving the goals of the project set by the company or the client. They are also responsible for fixing issues as they come up; tutoring junior team members; examining equipment, plans, and product; improving the efficiency and skill of individual team members; working on multiple projects at once; and acting independently as needed, applying their knowledge and experience where necessary.
Different principal design engineers may work in entirely different industries and on entirely different projects, and thus, the requirements for any one position can vary a lot. It is generally safe to assume that some sort of higher education diploma will be preferred, if not necessary, but that experience and previous work will be just as, if not more, important, as will a proficiency in design software, such as CAD, too.
What general advice would you give to a principal design engineer?
Andrea Welker Ph.D.
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, College of Engineering Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Villanova University
Avg. Salary $134,300
Avg. Salary $59,228
Growth rate 3%
Growth rate 0.3%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.18%
Asian 19.74%
Black or African American 4.63%
Hispanic or Latino 10.58%
Unknown 4.67%
White 60.20%
Genderfemale 7.65%
male 92.35%
Age - 44American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%
Asian 7.00%
Black or African American 14.00%
Hispanic or Latino 19.00%
White 57.00%
Genderfemale 47.00%
male 53.00%
Age - 44Stress level is manageable
7.1 - high
Complexity level is challenging
7 - challenging
Work life balance is good
6.4 - fair
Principal design engineer career paths
Key steps to become a principal design engineer
Explore principal design engineer education requirements
Start to develop specific principal design engineer skills
Skills Percentages RF 7.54% Principal Design 4.34% CAD 4.33% MATLAB 4.28% SOC 3.97% Complete relevant principal design engineer training and internships
Accountants spend an average of 1-2 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New principal design engineers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a principal design engineer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real principal design engineer resumes.Research principal design engineer duties and responsibilities
- Manage complex resolution of provisioning issues and develop practices and procedures for circuit installation and maintenance.
- Implement bus interface and board control FPGA for mix signal ASIC test system.
- Participate in the evaluation and selection of standard cell, memory, and I/O ASIC libraries and soft IP blocks.
- Create a Perl program that automatically generates top level Verilog connectivity tests.
Get principal design engineer experience
Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become a principal design engineer. The most common roles before becoming a principal design engineer include design engineer, senior design engineer team lead and senior engineer.Prepare your principal design engineer resume
When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your principal design engineer resume.
You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a principal design engineer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.
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Apply for principal design engineer jobs
Now it's time to start searching for a principal design engineer job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:
- Browse job boards for relevant postings
- Consult your professional network
- Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
- Watch out for job scams
How did you land your first principal design engineer job
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Average principal design engineer salary
The average principal design engineer salary in the United States is $134,300 per year or $65 per hour. Principal design engineer salaries range between $99,000 and $180,000 per year.
What am I worth?
How do principal design engineers rate their job?
Principal design engineer reviews
very little
Undone job, when we're unable to discover certain fault on time.
Hardware Design Engineer's are few intellectuals in a company who has exposure to all the aspects of product life cycle. It needs versatile knowledge of all most of the things. I feel passionate dealing with electronics components and analyzing them. It is a flexible job. It is a Real time job.
At times software development team questions on hardware design without looking the code running the stuff irritates Must have some knowledge of coding as well
Updated January 8, 2025
