How to hire a principle software engineer

How to hire a principle software engineer, step by step

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

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you start hiring a principle software engineer, identify what type of worker you actually need. Certain positions might call for a full-time employee, while others can be done by a part-time worker or contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

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

   Yes

   No

   You should also consider the ideal background you'd like them a principle software engineer to have before you start to hire. For example, what industry or field would you like them to have experience in, what level of seniority or education does the job require, and how much it'll cost to hire a principle software engineer that fits the bill.

   Here's a comparison of principle software engineer salaries for various roles:

   Type of Principle Software Engineer	Description	Hourly rate
   Principle Software Engineer	Software developers are the creative minds behind computer programs. Some develop the applications that allow people to do specific tasks on a computer or another device... Show more	$47-84
   Software Architect	A Software Architect develops new programs for a variety of technological devices for businesses, computer games, mobile networks, and/or operating systems. They ensure architectural integrity and consistency across the entire product and work closely with executives to explain the benefits of the software.	$39-75
   Lead Engineer	A lead engineer's duties vary on their line of work or industry of employment. Typically, their responsibilities will revolve around overseeing the progress of operations and performance of the workforce, ensuring that everything is running smoothly... Show more	$28-57

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Java
   • Python
   • Software Development
   • Cloud
   • JavaScript
   • C
   • C++
   • Jenkins
   • Html Css
   • Elasticsearch
   • Microservices
   • UI
   • Debugging
   • CSS

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Coordinate creation of database that manage test requests and function as results repository, accessible company-wide handling 5K+ requests.
   • Partner with QA to implement automate QA testing framework in python.
   • Create front-end interfaces for new and existing tools utilizing HTML, and Perl GTK.
   • Perform software integration and debugging tasks encompassing all aspects of handset software from device drivers to UI.
   • Transition legacy applications to utilize newer technologies (MVC, JQuery, AJAX, JavaScript, etc . )
   • Develop Perl and python code to interface EOIR sensor, video cameras, and bio-metric scanners for airport security system.

   More principle software engineer duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in the principle software engineer job description is a good way to get more applicants. A principle software engineer 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 principle software engineer in North Dakota may be lower than in California, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level principle software engineer. Additionally, a principle software engineer with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

   Average principle software engineer salary

   $131,742yearly

   $63.34 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level principle software engineer salary

   $98,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 14, 2025

   Average principle software engineer salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$170,161	$82
   2	Washington	$152,073	$73
   3	Oregon	$151,021	$73
   4	District of Columbia	$136,555	$66
   5	Utah	$124,889	$60
   6	Montana	$124,151	$60
   7	Pennsylvania	$122,989	$59
   8	Rhode Island	$119,743	$58
   9	Texas	$119,700	$58
   10	Illinois	$116,381	$56
   11	Massachusetts	$115,257	$55
   12	North Carolina	$112,665	$54
   13	Colorado	$112,217	$54
   14	Maryland	$111,481	$54
   15	Missouri	$109,122	$52
   16	Florida	$108,275	$52
   17	South Carolina	$107,907	$52
   18	Georgia	$106,922	$51
   19	Minnesota	$102,599	$49
   20	Ohio	$102,198	$49

   Average principle software engineer salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Walmart	$170,906	$82.17	543
   2	Microsoft	$168,291	$80.91	905
   3	PayPal	$164,992	$79.32	17
   4	Zynga	$155,220	$74.63	8
   5	Nokia	$148,892	$71.58	46
   6	Airline Tariff	$148,334	$71.31	3
   7	CyberCoders	$148,148	$71.22
   8	Bank of the West	$144,579	$69.51
   9	RH	$144,092	$69.28	2
   10	Citrix	$142,327	$68.43
   11	Enea Openwave	$142,001	$68.27
   12	Insight Enterprises	$140,719	$67.65	1
   13	Motion Recruitment	$139,536	$67.08	34
   14	Schneider Electric Critical Systems	$138,476	$66.58
   15	Jacobs Enterprises	$138,274	$66.48	52
   16	Parallel Wireless	$138,248	$66.47	2
   17	International SOS Assistance, Inc.	$138,014	$66.35
   18	GENERAL INFORMATION SERVICES	$138,012	$66.35
   19	AGCO	$137,787	$66.24	9
   20	Neato Robotics	$136,660	$65.70

4. Writing a principle software engineer job description

   A job description for a principle software engineer role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's a principle software engineer job description:

   Principle software engineer job description example

   COVID\-19 continues to significantly impact our employees, families and communities\. With employee health and safety as our top priority, and as a federal contractor, Lockheed Martin is taking action to address the increased risk and uncertainty COVID\-19 variants pose in the workplace and ensuring we meet our commitments to national security\.
   
   To uphold safety for all employees, we will continue to request vaccination status for all Lockheed Martin employees including new hires\. All current and newly hired employees are required to follow onsite safety measures based upon the COVID\-19 Community Level at the specific work location\.
   
   **Description:** This position is participating in our **External Referral Program** \. If you know somebody who may be a fit, click here to submit a referral\. If your referral is hired, you'll receive a payment\! code\-extrefer
   
   Sensor Tradecraft Optimization \(STO\) enables our organization to align with CSD priorities\. STO is an end\-to\-end agnostic solution provider that analyzes sensor data, designs, and delivers automated solutions to optimize sensor collection\. STO architects and engineer's tradecraft threads to drive sensors to produce the highest value data and threat intelligences to improve the Nation's cybersecurity posture\.
   
   STO requires Software engineers to support the Cyber Threat Intelligence \(CTI\) initiative to support defense of our nation's most critical unclassified and classified networks\. The Integration team requires software engineers with experience developing in Cloud environments\. Java, Python, Containerization \(Docker, Kubernetes\) skills are required\.
   **Basic Qualifications:**
   
   Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related discipline plus Twenty \(20\) years' experience as a SWE in programs and contracts of similar scope, type, and complexity
   
   Four \(4\) years of additional SWE experience on projects with similar software processes may be substituted for a bachelor's degree\.
   
   Experience with Java, Python, Containerization, and Orchestration Services \(Docker, Kubernetes\)
   
   **Desired Skills:**
   
   Experience with Azure and Azure tools and services
   
   **BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:**
   
   job\.Qualifications
   
   **Lockheed Martin is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer\. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veteran status, or disability status\.**
   
   Join us at Lockheed Martin, where your mission is ours\. Our customers tackle the hardest missions\. Those that demand extraordinary amounts of courage, resilience and precision\. They're dangerous\. Critical\. Sometimes they even provide an opportunity to change the world and save lives\. Those are the missions we care about\.
   
   As a leading technology innovation company, Lockheed Martin's vast team works with partners around the world to bring proven performance to our customers' toughest challenges\. Lockheed Martin has employees based in many states throughout the U\.S\., and Internationally, with business locations in many nations and territories\.
   
   **EXPERIENCE LEVEL:**
   
   Experienced Professional

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   There are a few common ways to find principle software 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 principle software engineer job on Zippia to find and recruit principle software engineer candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites such as dice, engineering.com, stack overflow, it job pro.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Your first interview with principle software 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.

   Remember to include a few questions that allow candidates to expand on their strengths in their own words. Asking about their unique skills might reveal things you'd miss otherwise. At this point, good candidates can move on to the technical interview.

   While interviews are great, you will only sometimes learn enough from a conversation with a principle software engineer applicant. In those cases, having candidates complete a test project can go a long way in figuring out who's the most likely to succeed in the role. If you aren't a technical person and don't know how to design an appropriate test, you can ask someone else on the team to create it or take a look at these websites to get a few ideas:

   • TestDome
   • CodeSignal
   • Testlify
   • BarRaiser
   • Coderbyte

   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 principle software engineer

   Once you've found the principle software engineer candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   It's also important to follow up with applicants who do not get the job with an email letting them know that the position is filled.

   To prepare for the new employee's start date, you can create an onboarding schedule and complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9 forms, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Human Resources should also ensure that a new employee file is 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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