How to hire a principal design engineer

How to hire a principal design engineer, step by step

Here's a step-by-step principal design engineer 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 design engineer job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new principal design engineer
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a principal design engineer do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you post your principal design engineer 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 design engineer 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 design engineer 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.

   The following list breaks down different types of principal design engineers and their corresponding salaries.

   Type of Principal Design Engineer	Description	Hourly rate
   Principal Design Engineer	Electrical engineers design, develop, test, and supervise the manufacturing of electrical equipment, such as electric motors, radar and navigation systems, communications systems, and power generation equipment. Electronics engineers design and develop electronic equipment, such as broadcast and communications systems—from portable music players to global positioning systems (GPSs).	$47-86
   Engineering Trainee	An engineering trainee is responsible for shadowing engineers in their duties and performing administrative tasks as needed. Engineering trainees assist the engineers in inspecting construction sites and conducting field research... Show more	$20-39
   Customer Engineer	A customer engineer provides technical support to organizations having issues with their products or services. Duties and responsibilities may vary depending on the sector, but generally include diagnosing and troubleshooting technical problems with products, performing tests, upgrades and diagnostics to prevent delay or downtime caused by-product issues, and keeping updated reports outlining the problems and measures taken to resolve them... Show more	$37-62

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • RF
   • Principal Design
   • CAD
   • MATLAB
   • SOC
   • C++
   • Verilog
   • Project Management
   • Design Verification
   • Analog
   • FPGA
   • IP
   • Circuit Design
   • Rtl Design

   Check all skills

   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.
   • Design digital board circuitry and PCB.
   • Review or design circuitry and PCB layout.

   More principal design engineer duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your principal design engineer job description is one of the best ways to attract top talent. A principal design engineer can vary based on:

   • Location. For example, principal design engineers' average salary in montana is 46% less than in california.
   • Seniority. Entry-level principal design engineers 45% less than senior-level principal design engineers.
   • Certifications. A principal design engineer with certifications usually earns a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for an established firm or a new start-up company can make a big difference in a principal design engineer's salary.

   Average principal design engineer salary

   $134,300yearly

   $64.57 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level principal design engineer salary

   $99,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 15, 2025

   Average principal design engineer salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$168,570	$81
   2	Texas	$143,967	$69
   3	Washington	$141,679	$68
   4	Alabama	$132,922	$64
   5	Arizona	$126,898	$61
   6	Colorado	$125,758	$60
   7	Oregon	$123,170	$59
   8	Massachusetts	$123,076	$59
   9	Maryland	$121,695	$59
   10	New Hampshire	$118,988	$57
   11	Georgia	$118,834	$57
   12	Florida	$113,111	$54
   13	North Carolina	$112,117	$54
   14	South Carolina	$106,138	$51
   15	Pennsylvania	$104,541	$50
   16	Illinois	$102,648	$49
   17	New York	$96,593	$46
   18	Wisconsin	$91,511	$44

   Average principal design engineer salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Microsoft	$178,434	$85.79	500
   2	NVIDIA	$167,569	$80.56	190
   3	CyberCoders	$164,634	$79.15
   4	SandForce	$156,811	$75.39
   5	Ampere	$153,025	$73.57
   6	Amazon	$152,275	$73.21	833
   7	Micron Technology	$151,140	$72.66	102
   8	Kore1	$149,975	$72.10
   9	Randstad North America, Inc.	$148,897	$71.59	4
   10	OCZ Technology	$148,048	$71.18
   11	Cypress HCM	$146,941	$70.64	10
   12	Orange County Business Bank	$145,944	$70.17
   13	Comtech Telecommunications	$145,354	$69.88	6
   14	Broadcom	$145,007	$69.71	114
   15	OTIS POLSKA	$144,954	$69.69
   16	Euro Pro	$144,567	$69.50
   17	Energous	$144,520	$69.48
   18	ams	$144,520	$69.48	15
   19	Midcontinent Independent System Operator	$144,520	$69.48	6
   20	HODINKEE	$144,520	$69.48

4. Writing a principal design engineer job description

   A principal design engineer job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. To help get you started, here's an example of a principal design engineer job description:

   Principal design engineer job description example

   Blackstone Talent Group, an award-winning technology consulting and talent agency is seeking a Platform Infrastructure Design Principal Engineer to join our team at our client’s site in Dulles, VA.
   
   Our clients team is seeking a Principal Infrastructure Engineer who feeds off the opportunity of rolling up their sleeves to take on meaningful problems each and every day. The Principal Infrastructure Engineer will join a team responsible for platform infrastructure design for a critical national asset. This includes operating system, COTS Stack, server, network and storage hardware design, and configuration of private cloud environments. The ideal candidate will possess extensive knowledge and experience with network infrastructure technologies, services, operations, and security. This position may require some on call support and overtime as well and limited (< 20%) travel as required for installation and troubleshooting support.
   An existing US Government Secret security clearance is required for this position.
   
   Required Skills:
   Minimum of (8)+ years of progressively responsible experience designing COTS infrastructure and private cloud environments Proficiency in matching system requirements to compute capabilities and the knowledge and ability to select specific hardware and infrastructure to meet those requirements Proficient working knowledge of networks, storage, and virtualization (VMware) Proficient at building, and configuring servers running Linux RHEL Knowledge and experience with Application and Security protocols, such as Solarwinds, HBSS, Certificates & Tokens, RSA, McAfee SIEM, McAfee IPS/IDS, Rubrik Host Backup System, SAN storage, and Active Directory Demonstrated knowledge of EMC Unity storage Knowledge and experience in the design, implementation and support of VMware’s product line Experience in working with highly hardened/secure environments Adjust quickly to changing priorities High level of motivation, self-starter Process Oriented
   Desired Skills:
   Background in COTS product installation Experience with automation tools such as Chef (preferred), Puppet, Ansible, SaltStack, Fabric or similar products for O/S builds, software installation and configuration Experience with DISA STIGs Experience with Windows and/or Linux System Administration Scripting skills (i.e. PowerShell, Python, Ruby, bash, etc.)
   Education Requirements:
   
   A degree in Science, Technology Engineering or Math (STEM), or related STEM degree program in Computer Science, Computer Engineering or Information Technology and 8 years of relatable experience.
   
   Blackstone Talent Group is a division of Blackstone Technology Group, a global IT services and solutions firm that implements technological solutions across commercial industry verticals and the US Federal Government. Blackstone’s global talent augmentation practice was founded in 1998. Blackstone Talent Group has offices in San Francisco, Denver, Houston, Colorado Springs, and Washington, DC. We specialize in providing clients the best talent across a variety of industries and sectors.
   
   EOE of Minorities/Females/Veterans/Disabilities

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   There are a few common ways to find principal design engineers for your business:

   • Promoting internally or recruiting from your existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
   • Attend job fairs at local colleges to meet candidates with the right educational background.
   • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to recruit passive job-seekers.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your principal design engineer job on Zippia to find and recruit principal design engineer candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Your first interview with principal design engineer candidates should focus on their interest in the role and background experience. As the hiring process goes on, you can learn more about how they'd fit into the company culture in later rounds of interviews.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents. You can move on to the technical interview if a candidate is good enough for the next step.

   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 design engineer

   Once you've selected the best principal design engineer 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.

   Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new principal design engineer. Human Resources should complete Employee Action Forms and ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc. They should also ensure that new employee files are created for internal recordkeeping.

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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