How To Become A Senior Principle Engineer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a senior principle engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Christopher Misorski FASM

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a senior principle engineer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $58.57 an hour? That's $121,825 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 10% and produce 30,600 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a senior principle engineer?

Christopher Misorski FASM

Brunswick Technical Fellow-Materials Product Development & Engineering

My first thoughts on beginning in any field or with any company is “be a sponge” about what the company is doing and what they want you to work on. Do way more listening and observing than talking. Learn the processes used AND the pitfalls/challenges of those processes. It is highly valuable to spend many hours “watching production” to gather first-hand knowledge of what is going on. Ask questions and don’t be quick to criticize a production employees’ explanation of the problem, even if you are quite sure technically that it is not fully correct. Their explanation fits the issues they see with their learned knowledge over time. There are valuable insights there. Also, just because you graduated with a degree, that doesn’t mean your education is finished. Continue to learn by attending relevant conferences for your field, attending training classes, watching webinars, attending local professional society technical meetings and talking to other experts in the field at these meetings. There is a LOT of knowledge out there and many methods of learning more.

ScoreSenior Principle EngineerUS Average

Salary

8.2

Avg. Salary $121,825

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.5

Growth rate 10%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.17%

Asian 15.45%

Black or African American 4.29%

Hispanic or Latino 10.52%

Unknown 3.88%

White 65.69%

Gender

female 13.57%

male 86.43%

Age - 41

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 - 41

Stress level

7.5

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.3

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.1

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a senior principle engineer

Explore senior principle engineer education requirements

Most common senior principle engineer degrees

Bachelor's

69.3 %

Master's

17.8 %

Associate

5.4 %

Start to develop specific senior principle engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
DOD	7.78%
Systems Engineering	7.64%
System Design	6.59%
SR	6.49%
Linux	6.47%

Complete relevant senior principle engineer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New senior principle 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 senior principle engineer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real senior principle engineer resumes.

Research senior principle engineer duties and responsibilities

Manage many PCB fabrications and assemblies.
Provide consultation to the ISO team in achieving certification, and enable company to win many more deals as a result.
EnCase FTK XRY uf Cellbrite Kali Linux
Coordinate with USG, Lockheed, and WSMR stakeholders to ensure radar objectives successfully meet.

Get senior principle engineer experience

Generally, it takes 2-4 years to become a senior principle engineer. The most common roles before becoming a senior principle engineer include senior systems engineer, senior software engineer team lead and senior engineer.

Apply for senior principle engineer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a senior principle 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