What is a principal product manager and how to become one

Q: Is a principal product manager higher than a senior product manager?

Yes, a principal product manager is higher than a senior product manager. Both roles are considered senior positions, with principal being the highest senior position in most companies. One difference between the two roles is that a senior engineer focuses more on the completion of the entire product from start to finish, while a principal product manager is more focused on the planning of the product.

Q: What is the difference between a principal product manager and a senior product manager?

The difference between a principal product manager and a senior product manager comes down to the span of responsibility, depth of experience, and the mix of product planning and product owner responsibilities.

Q: What level is a principal product manager at Amazon?

A principal product manager at Amazon is a level 7. It is sometimes referred to as a senior manager PM. Amazon's product managers typically range from L5 to L8. Product managers moving into director roles or VP product manager roles are considered levels 8 & 10. There is no level 9 - it's an Amazon thing.

Q: What qualifications do I need to be a product manager?

Product managers need to have a minimum of a bachelor's degree and some relevant work experience. Education and work experiences are both essential in becoming a product manager, but both can vary a great deal.

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Sachin Tuli

A principal product manager is responsible for the strategic planning, development, and launch of a company's products. They work with cross-functional teams to identify market opportunities and develop product roadmaps. They ensure that products meet customer expectations and are delivered on schedule and within budget. Principal product managers work closely with executives to ensure that product goals align with company goals. These managers must possess strong leadership skills and possess excellent communication abilities.

What's a day at work look like for a principal product manager?

Sachin Tuli

Director, International Business Major, Wisconsin School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The pandemic accelerated ongoing shifts with work-from-anywhere and use of remote meeting technologies. With mass adoption at all levels, these trends are likely to persist to some degree across fields and industries. There will likely be less travel for a number of years, but concurrently we may see more cross-team and cross-national collaboration and coordination. From an international business perspective, firms do plan to continue their globalization efforts and we know that graduates themselves increasingly seek potential global opportunities and mobility when choosing which organizations to work for.

ScorePrincipal Product ManagerUS Average

Salary

8.8

Avg. Salary $145,943

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.5

Growth rate 10%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.23%

Asian 8.15%

Black or African American 3.04%

Hispanic or Latino 8.67%

Unknown 5.32%

White 74.58%

Gender

female 26.06%

male 73.94%

Age - 38

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 38

Stress level

7.5

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.5

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

What are the pros and cons of being a principal product manager?

Pros

Competitive salary and benefits package
Exposure to cutting-edge technology and innovation
Opportunities for professional growth and advancement
Opportunity to innovate and disrupt industries

Cons

Stress due to the importance of product success
Risk of burnout due to long hours and demanding workload
Balancing competing priorities from different stakeholders
Need to stay up-to-date on rapidly evolving trends
Limited control over external factors such as market conditions

Key steps to become a principal product manager

Explore principal product manager education requirements

Most common principal product manager degrees

Bachelor's

66.8 %

Master's

23.8 %

Associate

4.9 %

Start to develop specific principal product manager skills

Skills	Percentages
Product Management	11.41%
QA	11.22%
Product Development	9.65%
Regression	9.21%
User Stories	3.61%

Complete relevant principal product manager training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New principal product managers 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 product manager based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real principal product manager resumes.

Research principal product manager duties and responsibilities

Lead an initiative to train technical writers on writing QA tests for documentation examples.
Lead SaaS application visibility and performance monitoring in hybrid enterprise to accelerate adoption of cloud.
Analyze complex business cases to determine product feasibility, prioritization and project ROI.
Define strategic direction and KPIs, make recommendations to leadership and execute on approve direction.

Prepare your principal product manager resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your principal product manager 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 product manager resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable principal product manager resume templates

Build a professional principal product manager resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your principal product manager resume.

Apply for principal product manager jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a principal product manager 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 do principal product managers rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Principal product manager reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Aug 2023

Pros

Solve tough problems, work on agile teams, outlet for creativity,

Cons

high expectations, constantly evolving technology, broad range of topics to learn (product management specifics, industry, technology, software development methods

A zippia user wrote a review on Jun 2020

Pros

Its not a specific job, As a product manager your job responsibilities cover many different areas and that's what i love about it.

Cons

all other teams think that they are doing a task for you instead of thinking that they are part of a team on a project

A zippia user wrote a review on Aug 2019

Cons

Agendas

Pros

Making strategic decisions in product development is pretty exciting for me

Principal product manager FAQs

What is a principal product manager and how to become one

What's a day at work look like for a principal product manager?

What are the pros and cons of being a principal product manager?

Principal product manager career paths

Key steps to become a principal product manager

Explore principal product manager education requirements

Most common principal product manager degrees

Start to develop specific principal product manager skills

Complete relevant principal product manager training and internships

Research principal product manager duties and responsibilities

Prepare your principal product manager resume

Choose from 10+ customizable principal product manager resume templates

Apply for principal product manager jobs

How did you land your first principal product manager job

Average principal product manager salary

How do principal product managers rate their job?

Principal product manager reviews

Principal product manager FAQs

Is a principal product manager higher than a senior product manager?

What is the difference between a principal product manager and a senior product manager?

What level is a principal product manager at Amazon?

What qualifications do I need to be a product manager?

Search for principal product manager jobs