505: What is a “principal” or “staff” engineer?

About this Episode

Sally and Joël join forces to discuss the different ways to interpret the role of a ‘principle’ or ‘staff’ engineer, and the handwaving around what those titles mean in terms of the gradation.

Whilst Joël dives into career progression within the industry, what a staff engineer does and the different archetypes within it, Sally talks about the importance of having principle engineers in the room during AI discussions, and her previous positive experiences working with principle engineers.

—

Joel used the Staff Archetypes page from staffeng.com during this episode’s discussion.

Your hosts for this episode have been thoughtbot’s own Joël Quenneville and Sally Hall.

Don't forget you can now watch every episode of The Bike Shed over on YouTube!

If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website.

Got a question or comment about the show? Write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm

This has been a thoughtbot podcast.

Stay up to date by following us on social media - YouTube - LinkedIn - Mastodon - BlueSky

© 2026 thoughtbot, inc.

Support The Bike Shed