Principle Engineer Qualifications

[YoungGunner]

Bit of an odd request, I'm looking for better understanding of what the industry considers to be a "principle" in structural engineering. What are the implied duties or qualifications that come with the title of "principle?" And how would these responsibilities differ from someone with a title of "Project Manager?" Any insights are helpful, just wondering if we need to rename some positions at our company.

 

[SwinnyGG]

I think generally a 'Principal' engineer is like a partner at a law firm. If you're a principal your name may not necessarily be on the letterhead, but you're likely to be spending your time focused on the largest/most critical jobs the company has in their queue, along with significant time dealing with existing clients, business development with new clients, and mentoring younger engineers. There may or may not be an actual direct management component (i.e. a principal might be a mentor to younger staff without actually be their reporting manager, or may actually be their direct manager depending on the company size/structure/etc)

 

[SlideRuleEra]

I worked as "Principle Engineer - Civil, Structural, Geotechnical" in heavy industry (electric utility - generation). Duties closely aligned with SwinnyGG's description:

"Normally" technically responsible for work within generation department, but...
Dedicated to the corporation's highest priority technical projects regardless of which department.
Mentor younger engineers.
Represent company at hearings on technical subjects.

 

[JLNJ]

You used to hear titles such as "Principal Bridge Engineer". To me this was the go-to guy, the person who had the last word on any particular design. My impression is that this person would perform tasks more like internal peer reviews than supervising Construction Document production. Maybe they still use it in government positions but I don't hear it much any more.

More recently it has taken on the meaning of a person who has bought in to a company and reached a certain threshold of ownership. The top Marketing person in an engineering firm might be a "Principal" even though they certainly are not responsible for any engineering.

 

[cvg]

a "principle" generally has a significant ownership stake in a company

https://www.upcounsel.com/principal-of-a-company

 

[phamENG]

ASCE Guidelines for Engineering Grades

Looks like Principal is Grade VI in this list.

 

[BridgeSmith]

At the DOT where I work, a "Principal Bridge Engineer" is the first level supervisor, supervising a crew of design engineers and structural detailers. He or she is a P.E., whose only typical actual engineering duty is to review the plans and stamp them to certify they are complete and accurately reflect the structural design completed by one of the design engineers (who stamps their design).

I'm sure it's different in different sectors. At the end of the day, it's just a position title, and doesn't necessarily indicate any specific responsibilities.

 

[WARose]

It varies from place to place. In some of the larger EPC outfits it's basically a guy/gal a step above individual leads....but not quite a department head. Typically a subject expert. Another big outfit I've worked for had something similar called "section leads". I.e. one for their pulp & paper group, one for their steel mill group, and so on.

EDIT: Fluor has been advertising a lot for "principal" engineers (at least where I live). You may want to look up some of those ads.

 

[kipfoot]

I've always thought that a principal is the owner of the firm, but I think I have to yield to the evidence to the contrary in the other replies. Maybe my connotation still applies in small firms.

(the people who spell it principal are correct because principle is a noun. and ideally your principal is principled.)

 

[dik]

see...

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/principal

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[KootK]

What are the implied duties or qualifications that come with the title of "principle?"

In private sector buildings work, the qualification is that you bring in so much profitable business personally that your employer becomes motivated to slap the golden handcuffs (equity) on you in order to keep you onside rather than hanging your own shingle as a competitor or defecting to a competitor.

Some firms will make use of the smoke and mirrors designation "project principal". This is when someone isn't really a principal but the firm wants the clients working with that person to think that they are being serviced by someone important. "A principal will have an active roll in all of our projects, large or small!". It's just marketing BS that fools no one.

 

[YoungGunner]

Good call on my misspelling of the word everyone. I'll take extra care with that in the future.

 

[Geoff13]

In my company the principal engineers are the world-wide final guru/authority on a particular product line, and work out of head office. They generally do not have a direct report staff, nor any projects of their own. They also are typically our reps on various Code committees and involved with the maintenance of in-house standards.

In our case, principal has nothing to do with ownership as we're NYSE listed. They may have a few shares in their retirement account, but that doesn't get them far in a shareholder vote.

 

[Aesur]

I would say a Principal is essentially one of the individuals near the top of the chain, making business decisions, marketing, finding projects, training, proposals, and/or running a division. Typically these individuals have a stake in the business, however this is not always the case.

 

[271828]

What Aesur said, although every principal I've known has had significant company ownership.

 

[dik]

271828... it used to be that way, but with current marketing terms, I'm not sure you can be certain.

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[bugbus]

In our company, the title gets handed out like candy. It's merely one step up from 'Senior Engineer', that role being given to anyone with as little as 5 years experience. Principals generally about 10 years. Then Senior Principals (~15 years), Regional Senior Principals (??), etc. etc. It's all utterly meaningless in my opinion. In our team of ~20 engineers, we have around 5 who are Principal level. I don't believe any (or many) have any stake in the company. I realise this is probably a regional thing (Australia), it seems like there's a little more restraint on how these titles are handed out in North America.

 

[the_Dominator]

@bugbus, also in Australia.

In our firm it's reserved for the technical leaders within an engineering discipline. Their role is to define company technical standards, provide technical advice to project teams, carry out QA/checking and carry out technical education of younger engineers. Project/client management and business development is mostly handled by other roles.

About 250-300 staff nationally and we only have half a dozen or so Principals.

 

[Ussuri]

The company I work for has the same approach as bugbus. It's just one level above Senior, and there are still levels above Principal (Specialist, Consultant) so it isn't even that high a level. We have lots and lots of Principals and none of them have any control/stake in the company. I'm in the UK, but the company is Norwegian. It all depends on how HR have defined the roles.