---
title: "505: What is a “principal” or “staff” engineer?"
url: https://daily.dev/posts/505-what-is-a-principal-or-staff-engineer--gzvqajn13
source_url: https://bikeshed.thoughtbot.com/505
type: article
source: "RUBYLAND"
published: 2026-07-07T14:25:01.857Z
updated: 2026-07-07T14:25:18.338Z
tags: ["career", "leadership"]
reading_time: 2
upvotes: 0
comments: 0
language: en
---

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

**[RUBYLAND](https://daily.dev/sources/rubyla)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

A podcast episode exploring what it means to be a principal or staff engineer, covering the ambiguity around these titles, different staff engineer archetypes (referencing staffeng.com), and career progression paths in the industry. The hosts also touch on the importance of having principal engineers involved in AI-related discussions.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://bikeshed.thoughtbot.com/505>

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---

Tags: [#career](https://daily.dev/tags/career), [#leadership](https://daily.dev/tags/leadership)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/505-what-is-a-principal-or-staff-engineer--gzvqajn13)