Principle engineer vs staff engineer

The differences between principle engineers and staff engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 4-6 years to become both a principle engineer and a staff engineer. Additionally, a principle engineer has an average salary of $126,143, which is higher than the $107,530 average annual salary of a staff engineer.

The top three skills for a principle engineer include architecture, java and R. The most important skills for a staff engineer are java, python, and architecture.

Principle engineer vs staff engineer overview

	Principle Engineer	Staff Engineer
Yearly salary	$126,143	$107,530
Hourly rate	$60.65	$51.70
Growth rate	2%	2%
Number of jobs	158,235	277,011
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 67%	Bachelor's Degree, 74%
Average age	41	41
Years of experience	6	6

Principle engineer vs staff engineer salary

Principle engineers and staff engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Principle Engineer	Staff Engineer
Average salary	$126,143	$107,530
Salary range	Between $92,000 And $171,000	Between $69,000 And $167,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	San Mateo, CA
Highest paying state	California	California
Best paying company	The Walt Disney Company	Flexport
Best paying industry	Finance	Telecommunication

Differences between principle engineer and staff engineer education

There are a few differences between a principle engineer and a staff engineer in terms of educational background:

	Principle Engineer	Staff Engineer
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 67%	Bachelor's Degree, 74%
Most common major	Electrical Engineering	Electrical Engineering
Most common college	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Principle engineer vs staff engineer demographics

Here are the differences between principle engineers' and staff engineers' demographics:

	Principle Engineer	Staff Engineer
Average age	41	41
Gender ratio	Male, 94.5% Female, 5.5%	Male, 87.9% Female, 12.1%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 3.1% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 7.9% Asian, 17.0% White, 67.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%	Black or African American, 3.1% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 7.8% Asian, 16.8% White, 67.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%
LGBT Percentage	5%	5%

Differences between principle engineer and staff engineer duties and responsibilities

Principle engineer example responsibilities.

Lead cross-functional development initiatives compliant with FDA 21 CFR 820.
Code the Linux socket base GigE protocol to manage and transfer streams of video data.
Manage Terraform and refactore from monolithic to application specific components.
Set up and configure PHP Java bridge to enable invoking Java services from a PHP script.
Design and develop low-level FC device driver as well as the Linux kernel interface layer for the product.
Have a detail-orient with a track record of delivering infrastructure enhancements on time and with minimal impacts to production.

Staff engineer example responsibilities.

Manage complete design flow: schematic creation, layout design, PCB fabrication, parts procurement and assembly.
Develop and manage technical procedures for quality control to comply with ISO laboratory accreditation.
Implement a process for reusing SilverStream Java custom reports and UI code on a ColdFusion server saving 1.5 man-years of development.
Develop and document communication stack API, enabling parallel development of third-party stack and UI interface.
Participate in relocating network infrastructure, server farm, network monitoring and IP telephony to another data center.
Web pages contain HTML and JavaScript.

Principle engineer vs staff engineer skills

Common principle engineer skills

Architecture, 10%
Java, 9%
R, 5%
API, 4%
System Design, 4%
Product Development, 4%

Common staff engineer skills

Java, 15%
Python, 10%
Architecture, 7%
Software Development, 4%
Project Management, 4%
API, 3%