organization. Regarding "member of technical staff," my understanding (as the original poster of this question) is that it's used to represent a high position, usually in research. Your journey to become an engineer will vary depending on your career goals and what field of engineering you wish to practice. I've heard someone refer to anyone in IT as "Those technical fellows", I always wanted to sing "For he's a jolly good Fellow" whenever one of them was around :-D, What is the difference between these senior software engineer titles? Ranks from lowest to highest are: An engineer can expect to receive assignments or tasks and external prioritization. Major Tasks, Responsibilities & Key Accountabilities: Works with senior leaders to shape the go-forward vision for the organization from a specific domain perspective, Works with vendors and partners on the successful strategy, planning, and implementation of critical tooling and platforms, Participates in and influences development of technology roadmaps across the enterprise, Evaluates new technologies for adoption across the enterprise, Drives thought leadership and innovation within the organization, Fields questions from product, project and support teams, Evangelizes successful usage of tooling and technologies with teams, Monitors tools and leads conversations to encourage collaboration across product teams, Learns, through reading, tutorials, relationships, and videos, new technologies and best practices being used in other organizations, Teaches, mentors, grows, and advises other domain experts in the organization (including direct reports, if applicable), Documents, reviews and ensures that all quality and change control standards are met, Works with vendors and partners on the successful planning and implementation of critical tooling and platforms, Understands and articulates the value creation and business proposition to teams and functional partners, Participates in and leads review board sessions to drive consistency across the enterprise, Acts as a point of escalation for teams facing extremely complex challenges, Participates in and leads learning activities within the organization, Connects teams facing similar challenges and problems to encourage consistency, Presents at and attends conferences and learns how to apply new technologies and concepts, Capable of jumping into a variety of teams to resolve issues, Provides leadership, mentoring, and coaching to direct reports (if applicable), Conducts annual and mid-year reviews, reviewing individual development plans and providing performance feedback (if applicable), Attracts, retains, develops, and motivates top talent (applicable if incumbent has direct reports), Deep technical experts and thought leaders that help accelerate adoption of the very best engineering practices, while maintaining knowledge on industry innovations, trends and practices, Visionaries, collaborating on Capital Ones toughest issues, to deliver on business needs that directly impact the lives of our customers and associates, Role models and mentors, helping to coach and strengthen the technical expertise and know-how of our engineering and product community, Evangelists, both internally and externally, helping to elevate the Distinguished Engineering community and establish themselves as a go-to resource on given technologies and technology-enabled capabilities, Leaders who gain the trust and confidence of those around them, from hands on engineers to executives. Principal engineers are higher-level positions compared to senior engineers. It's harder to pin down the day-to-day execution of this role because each person's journey depends on their own expertise, and how they can apply it to help the business achieve its goals. #_form_7_ ._submit { -webkit-appearance:none; cursor:pointer; font-size:20px; text-align:center; background:#0a0a44 !important; border:0 !important; color:#fff !important; padding:15px 20px !important; } Finding the right candidate in the appropriate field can be challenging, but you must compete with other organizations to attract top talent. The Distinguished Engineer is a grade 10. Its less established or well-documented than the path for engineering managers, with all tech companies approaching titles in their own way. Thats because Distinguished Engineers usually have achieved both breath and depth in their knowledge so they can identify and achieve integration among domains such as: Distinguished Engineers develop a sense of what technical employees want and need while coaching and mentoring engineering teams. #_form_7_ ._full_width { width:100%; } According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median salary for engineers annually was $91,010 in 2016. Most organizations want individuals to stay in their lane (until they become obsolete). #_form_7_ ._row input[type="checkbox"] + span label { display:inline; } #_form_7_ ._form_element img._form-image { max-width:100%; } In this role, engineers can strengthen the company by building out their own areas of expertise. Exposes technology and organizational needs across their sub-department. Senior Staff Engineer sounds very generic and broad, doesn't have the words "software" or "research" in there. I know what it means, but I don't know how it stacks up against the other titles, which is why I asked. Replacing broken pins/legs on a DIP IC package, Calculating probabilities from d6 dice pool (Degenesis rules for botches and triggers). GitLab Inc. is a company based on the GitLab open-source project. Executive managers are focused primarily on business financial objectives, using (largely financial) executive management terminology and concepts such as Payback Period, Break-Even Analysis, ARR, NPV, IRR, WACC, EAC, Risk, ROA, ROIC, EBITDA, CAGR, CapEx, OpEx, Balanced Scorecard, KPI, OKR, PEG, QOQ, SWOT, TBL, and other financial concepts. Thus, courses on negotiation at HBR, MasterClass.com; as well as Difficult Conversations emphasize being a good listener by showing empathy; maintaining curiosity rather than conflicting positions; and keeping focused on moving forward toward mutual value. #_form_7_ ._form_element._clear { clear:both; width:100%; float:none; } The Chief Technology Officer is a grade 12. In general, the hierarchy of engineers goes, from lowest to highest, as follows: Staff engineers are one level above senior engineers. Levels and titles often (but not always) interact here, applying additional details to titles like I, II, III, and moving up to more detailed seniority classifications like Staff, Principal, Distinguished, and Fellow. To clarify GrandmasterB's point here - I'm presently a Senior Software Engineer. #_form_7_ ._error._above ._error-arrow { bottom:0; right:15px; border-left:5px solid transparent; border-right:5px solid transparent; border-top:5px solid #f37c7b; } /*-->