Principal Engineer - Talent

Analysis
Conceptualized and Developed: March - 2021

The objective of the document is to analyse how Principal Engineering

talent has emerged due to complex workloads and technological
advancements. This document also provides an overview of job
responsibilities, skills of Principal Engineer, how traditional roles are
transitioning to Principal Engineer job roles, and global location
hotspots analysis for targeted hiring for Insurance Industry

Copyright @2021 Draup. All rights reserved.

With emerging technologies and increasing complexity of workloads in Insurance sector, Various
senior level job roles have emerged in past few years

Digitalization across industries has led to effective resource allocation and utilization to improve the speed of Project Delivery, which has
ultimately led to the emergence of senior job roles with expertise and experience across broader areas

Mass production and

Increase in global Job demand of sample
evolution of core
industries increased the
2000-2010 Senior level Job roles in 2020 as
demand of Senior level jobs compared to 2019
like: Plant Manager, Senior
Hardware Engineer
Principal Engineer 30%
With the ever moving
world of technology,
Product Manager 24%
2010-2015 Evolution of Manufacturing
landscape and automation
Insurance Organizations
need people with right
led to increase in Senior Level skills and capabilities to
jobs related to process Product Owner 22%
respond to this rate of
engineering and automation
technologies change and establish Agile
methodologies and Staff Engineer 18%
practices
Digital Revolution has
increased the level of
Technical Responsibility
Source: Distinguished
Draup Engineer 16%
that has led to the 2015-2020
evolution of Senior level
Job Roles like: Principal Project Manager 12% 2
Engineer, Product Manager

Source: Draup Analysis, News Articles, Press Releases

Source: Draup 2
 Considering the recent increase in demand for ‘Principal Engineer’ job role in Insurance Industry, following
components have been analysed in detail for ‘Principal Engineer’:

Agenda
Pages
1. Supply & Demand of Principal

4-7 • Job Role Overview: Principal Engineer 2.

3.
Engineer talent
In –demand skills & workloads
Job description overview

9-11 • Career ladder and Job Role Transition Case Study

13-17 • Location intelligence for Principal Engineer talent Source: Draup

Source: Draup 3
Global demand for Principal Engineer job role has increased by almost 30% in 2020 as compared to 2019

Complexity of work performed and increase in demand of domain specific

Principal Engineers are recognized as engineering authorities having technical experts has led to increase in demand for Principal Engineers
extensive practical experience gained from working as an Engineer and
typically answer directly to the senior management of their company
Principal Engineer Installed Talent Globally

Installed Talent Size

20% increase in the number of Installed
Principal Engineer performs some of the crucial duties that are Talent in 2020 as compared to 2019 132000
Principal Engineer
required performs some
for an Organization of at
to excel the cruciallevel
technical duties that 110000
are required for an Organization to excel at technical level 90000
70000
They are known to handle Challenging Projects that requires the 60000
work of several teams

2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

TheyPrincipal
1. take Technical Ownership
Engineers are of the
2. complex project
Principal that they
Engineers
have known
in handto handle take Technical
Challenging Projects Ownership of the
Principal Engineer Job Postings Globally
that requires the work complex project that
They of
amplify the impact by leading various
theycomplex
have insoftware
hand and its

Number of Job Postings

several teams 30% increase in demand in 2020 as
features by providing Technical Leadership compared to 2019 18200
3. Principal Engineers 14000
amplify the impact by Source: Draup
11000
Theyleading
Educatevarious complexboth at individual level and at scale
other engineers 9000
software
keeping and its features
the engineering community up to date 7600
by providing Technical 4
Leadership
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Source: Draup 4
Source: Above represented information is fetched from Draup Talent Intelligence Platform, News Articles and Company Press Releases
Skills & Workload Analysis: Building Complex Distribution Systems, and Driving System Architecture
and Engineering Methodologies are some of the key responsibilities of Principal Engineer

Principal Engineer – Skills Analysis

Technical Responsibilities Functional Area

• Oversee the product's or project’s conception, design and initial product specifications
and manage scheduling, estimating and securing materials
• Provide engineering guidance to other departments and build high quality, scalable, and
Search and Information Retrieval; Robotics; Security; Hardware; Embedded
architecturally sound systems that align with the business needs
Systems; Networking; Operating Systems, Cloud, IoT, Testing, Product Design,
• Establish technical standards and drive system architecture, engineering practices, and
Software development
engineering methodologies
• Conduct engineering studies and investigations and prepare reports for company
leadership

Skills Required

Technical Skills Functional Skills

Large scale systems engineering, building complex distributed systems, Business Analysis, Pricing Strategy, Competitive Analysis,
System Architecture, Database handling, Software development Enterprise Resource Planning, Team Management

Agile Management
Source: Draup
SCRUM, RUP, XP, Product Life Cycle
Management
5

Note Draup’s proprietary talent module was used to analyse the Job roles, titles and skills
Skill Proficiency Level High Medium Source:
Low Draup 5
Job description comparison across companies: Mid size Insurance companies and Start-ups have lower
experience requirements for Principal engineer talent compared to Large Companies
Draup leveraged text mining model to identify the job descriptions at various levels of companies to better position the role level analysis
Principal Software Engineer (Job Description across various levels of companies)
Create technical roadmaps, standards,
tooling & frameworks required for a high
quality, rich application suite
Advance architecture roadmap for
Job business area(s) by recommending third
Responsibilities party/cloud solutions and Prototyping
initiatives
Design and develop our cloud-enabled
products, to utilize modern frameworks
and technologies
Strong development background
delivering full-stack applications using
Area’s of modern frameworks that includes
Experience / Microsoft technologies
Technical Skills
Expert in Agile
required development/methodologies, Test
Automation and TDD, CI/CD, DevOps
8+ years of successfully delivering
software products in a enterprise
Qualification environment
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science
Note: Draup leveraged text mining to identify top skill and responsibilities of the top companies
Stealth Start-up
Effectively lead Software Engineers and Analyze, design, code, test, debug,
Working knowledge of professional
collaborate with Solution Architects in maintain, and document software
software engineering practices (coding
the design of modern software solutions components in accordance with the
standards, code reviews, source control
software architecture and software
management, build processes, testing)
Deliver Technical Examples, Proof of development processes
Concepts and Templates for Teams to
Analyze complex technical problems and is
adopt, streamlining projects Build the process to elicit and specify
expected to recommend process
bootstrapping project requirements and define project
improvements that address complex
scope
technology gaps within a single business
Perform Technical Spikes required in
process and improve data reliability,
new Technologies and Processes Assist in development of software
quality, and efficiency
assessment application architecture
Proficiency in multiple object-oriented
Experience with micro-services and other
programming languages and tools;
Proficiency in key technologies such as
primarily focus on JavaScript/TypeScript
service oriented architectures and design
Java/JavaScript, AWS, CI/CD and Python methodologies (like BDD/DDD)
and Java
and ideally in other areas such as;
MuleSoft, Guidewire, Git, Spring, SQL, Experience turning requirements into
Understanding of backlog tracking,
REST & Docker.
burndown metrics and incremental
software design specifications and
architecture
delivery Source: Draup
8+ years experience in Technical Career
2+ years of Relevant Experience
Pathway (TCP) role B.S. in Computer Science required or a
A Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in
combination of equivalent educational 6
Bachelors degree in Computer Science, experience
Computer Science
Applied Science, Electrical Engineering
Source: Draup 6
Principal Engineer job roles analysis in Start-ups vs Corporates: Start-ups tend to have a faster career growth
compared to the MNC’s. More than 25% of the Principal Engineers in start-ups have 3 – 8 years of experience

Principal Engineering - Professionals

Parameters
Start-ups Corporates / MNC’s
More than 25% of the Principal Engineer professionals are at Entry/Mid Majority 95% of the Principal Engineer professionals are at Senior level with
Experience Level level experience between 3 – 8 Years more than 10 Years of experience

Talent Maturity is high with wider exposure to new-age technologies with high
Talent Maturity Talent Maturity is comparatively lower than the professionals at MNC’s
professionalism

Circumscribed towards a particular product/service stream with limited Diverse experience/knowledge across various business disciplines and
Product Focus opportunities of wider view engineering disciplines

Core Principal Engineer at Start-up companies directly involve in the Principal Engineer at MNC’s Oversee the product's or project’s conception,
Responsibilities transformative software development and agile management design initial product specifications

Managerial/ Managerial / Behavioural Skills includes Team Leadership, Managerial / Behavioural Skills includes Team management, Problem-solving
Behavioural Skills Analytical/Debugging skills and decision-making skills

Michael Hogg Gary Rexford

Designation: Principal Engineer Designation: Principal Engineer
Company: A Start-up in Boston Company: MNC in Boston
Total Years of Experience: 6 Years Total Years of Experience: 26 Years

Sample Profiles • Manage and lead a mechanical development team to ensure the on-time
development of reliable products
• Develop validation plans based on analysis, simulation and FMEA to mitigate
potential risks
Education Background: (BE) Mechanical Engineering at Western University
• Lead engineer on new Source:
productsDraup
including system level setup, integration and
validation within the NAS and SAN market
• Responsible for creating design of experiments for a multitude of hardware,
firmware, protocol, and signal integrity related issues
7
Education Background: (BE) Electrical Engineering at Rochester Institute

Note : Draup’s proprietary talent module was used to analyse the above represented data’s.
Source: Job Descriptions posted by HR professionals at public forums
Source: Draup 7
 Pages
Agenda
4-7 • Job Role Overview: Principal Engineer

1. Principal Engineer - Career

Ladder
9-11 • Career ladder and Job Role Transition analysis 2. Principal Engineer – Job Role
Transition
3. Job Role Transition Sample Case
Study

13-17 • Location intelligence for Principal Engineer talent

Source: Draup

Source: Draup 8
Career Ladder of Principal Engineer: Experienced Engineer (at Level 5) in Insurance, can either progress
towards Managerial Track or Individual Contributor Track, where he/she can finally become Principal Engineer

Individual Contributor Track Managerial Track

(Highly Skilled in technical aspects) (Responsible for managing large teams)

(Computer science gurus who have (Responsible for managing entire

Distinguished Engineer Engineering VP
imagined, built, and launched multiple Engineering Teams of the Organization)
Level 8 Level 8
successful projects)

(Tech Guru responsible for Engineering Manager (Experienced Manager of

Principal Engineer Level 7 Several Engineering Teams)
company wide solutions and strategies) Level 7

(Respected Technical lead and Staff Engineer Lead Engineer (Skilled Manager of a mid
expert with deep knowledge) Level 6 Level 6 Sized Team)

Senior Engineer
Level 5

Engineer Source: Draup

Level 4

9
Junior Engineer
Source: The analysis is based on Draup’s talent module, internal Level 3
research, customer engagement reports, and industry blogs and Source: Draup 9
whitepapers
Principal Engineer – Job Role Transition: Software Development Job Family has seen maximum career
transition towards Principal Engineer specific Job Role followed by Hardware, Network Engineering
across industries

Analysed percentage
Job Family Job Titles of Transitions across Job Role
each job family
Software Development Manager Senior DevOps Engineer
Software
Development
Senior Software Architect Technical Lead – Software Development 39% • Principal Cloud Engineer
• Principal Software Engineer
(Highly Relevant for Insurance Industry)
Senior Software Development Engineer Manager, System Software • Principal Systems Engineer
Senior Cyber Security Engineer Application Development Manager

Hardware
Senior Mechatronics Manager
Manager, Hardware Engineering
Senior Mechanical Engineer
Senior Hardware Architect
22% • Principal Hardware Engineer
• Principal Robotics Engineer
Engineering
Senior Robotics Engineer Senior Hardware Design Engineer

Network
Manager of Network Engineering
Senior Network Engineer
Lead Network Engineer
Network Architect
18% • Principal Network Engineer
Engineering
Senior VoIP Solutions Engineer Network Facilities Engineer II

• Principal Engineer Embedded

Embedded
Technical Lead – Embedded Development
Senior Firmware Manager
Senior Electrical Engineer
Embedded Linux Kernel Engineer
12% Software
Engineering • Principal Electrical Engineer
Senior Embedded Systems Engineer Senior Imaging Embedded - FW Engineer • Principal Firmware Engineer

Senior Data Architect Senior Research Engineer Source: Draup

Others Lead Infrastructure Engineer Senior Database Engineer 9% • Principal Research Engineer
(Data, Research, Infrastructure) Senior Process Automation Engineer Senior Geotechnical Engineer
10
Staff Systems Engineer Senior Modelling Lead

Note : Draup analysed 6,000+ profiles from various job families to analyze talent profiles based on past and current designation, location and skills Source: Draup 10
Software Development includes Search and Information Retrieval, Operating Systems, Cyber Security. Hardware Engineering includes robotics.
Sample Case Studies – Transition to Principal Engineer Specific Job Roles: Experienced Engineering Talent of
different Job families across Insurance Industry are transitioning towards Principal Engineer job roles

Draup has analysed over 1000+ profiles to understand and validate the actual job roles transitions
(Feb 2016–Apr 2018) (Feb 2016 – Present) (June 2018 – June 2020) (June 2020 – Present)

Lead UI Developer Principal Design Engineer Robotics Lead Design Engineer Principal Engineer
America's Test Kitchen Berkshire Hathaway Insurance Amazon Robotics Berkshire Grey

(Mar 2016–Dec 2018) (Dec 2018 – Present) (Jul 2017–Dec 2018) (Dec 2018 – Present)

Principal IT portfolio Architect Principal Engineer Senior Software Developer Principal Software Engineer
UnitedHealth Group UnitedHealth Group Liberty Mutual Insurance Liberty Mutual Insurance

(April 2012 – June 2013) (July 2013 – Present) (February 2010 – December 2017) (December 2017 – Present)
Source: Draup
Senior Hardware Engineer Principal Hardware Engineer Senior Research Engineer Principal Research Engineer
Cognizant Cognizant Nuance Communications Nuance Communications

11

Source: Draup 11
Note: Draup’s proprietary talent module was used to analyze talent profiles based on past and current designation, location and skills
 Pages
Agenda
4-7 • Job Role Overview: Principal Engineer

9-11 • Career ladder and Job Role Transition Case Study

1. Principal Engineer – Global Talent

13-17 • Location intelligence for Principal Engineer talent 2.

Hotspot analysis
Location Deep-dive of Hyderabad,
India and Gdansk, Poland
3. Top Hiring Companies and
compensation analysis
Source: Draup

12

Source: Draup 12
Principal Engineer – Global Talent Hotspot: San Francisco Bay Area, Bengaluru, Boston, and Los Angeles are some of the top
global locations with high number of Principal Engineer talent pool. Hyderabad and Gdansk, some of the emerging locations
for Principal Engineer talent pool, have been analysed in detail

Draup has identified 100+ Principal Engineer Hotbeds across the globe
West Coast of NA East Coast of NA Western Europe & Israel Indian Hi-Tech Cities East Asia and Australia
Montreal Amsterdam The Hague
Ottawa
Birmingham Edinburgh Berlin
Calgary Dallas
Raleigh Munich
Denver Luxembourg Frankfurt
Paris Stuttgart Cracow
Minneapolis Washington DC Gdansk
London
New York
Kiev
Vancouver Chicago Cambridge
Shenzhen
Toronto Manchester Warsaw
Seattle Charlotte Prague Chengdu
Detroit Bucharest
Dublin Beijing
Portland Atlanta Boston Tokyo
Cleveland Madrid Hangzhou
San Francisco Cologne Bologna Nanjing
Philadelphia Budapest Delhi NCR
Los Angeles Miami Bristol Tel Aviv
Milan Guangzhou Shanghai
Nashville
San Diego Austin Taipei
Turin Mumbai
Houston Barcelona Chennai
Phoenix Pune Metro Manila
Bengaluru
Mexico City
Singapore

Hyderabad
Kuala Lampur
Sao Paulo Source: Draup Canberra
TALENT AVAILABILITY INDEX
Perth Melbourne
High >2,000
Moderate > 1,000-2,000 Brisbane
Low <1,000
Hyderabad, India and Gdansk, Poland are Sydney 13
analyzed further in detail
Source: Draup 13
Draup’s proprietary talent module was used to identify hotspots for Principal Engineering
Hotspot Location Analysis – Hyderabad, India (1/2): HITEC City and Nanakramguda are the major hotspots in Greater
Hyderabad Area with the presence of top companies such as Microsoft, Oracle, Google, Apple and Broadcom Inc

Greater Hyderabad Area, India – Hotspot Talent Availability GEOGRAPHY TOP TECH EMPLOYERS
Fresh Talent
Talent Quality Oracle, Dell EMC, Broadcom, Microsoft, Qualcomm,
Madhapur
HITEC City Pegasystems Inc, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel
Talent Growth
Corporation, Google
Median Cost
HITEC City Ease of Hiring
DBS Bank, CA Technology – A Broadcom Company,
Regulatory Cost Nanakramguda
Apple Development Center
Infrastructure Cost
Start up Index
Other Hotspot Salesforce, MathWorks, Wells Fargo, AT&T, Intuit
Early findings Limited concerns,
raise no concerns likely not significant

Location Characteristics

Business Considerations Location Attributes

Business costs relative to Population 10 Mn

Low Demographics
Europe average
Annual Population Growth 2.7%
Business Cost
Rai Durg Effective Corporate tax
Nanakramguda rate Medium Cost of living $333/month
(Low/Moderate/High) Source: Draup
Quality of life Quality of Living Low
Real Estate cost $1,136/sq.m Avg. Commute time (One
26 min
Commercial Way)
Major Hotspots Other Hotspot Real Estate Commercial real estate 14
9.2% Gender
vacancy rate Gender Ratio (M/F) 95:100
Diversity
Source: Draup 14
Source: Cushman and Wakefield, Statista website, Numbeo database, Central Statistics Office,
Hotspot Location Analysis – Hyderabad, India (2/2): Oracle, Broadcom, Dell EMC, Qualcomm, and First American are
some of the top companies employing a large number of Principal Engineers in Hyderabad

Principal Engineer Median Base Pay in (USD) (Relevant Talent Pool)

Top Employers
Talent Size Common Job Titles
$32,700
Median Talent Cost of a Principal Engineer Principal Software Engineer
300 Principal Applications Engineer
Principal Software Quality Assurance Engineer

$37,500 Principal Engineer - IC Design

210 Senior Principal Engineer
Senior Principal Software Engineer
$23,000
$17,500 Senior Principal Engineer
Median Salary (USD) per annum

120 Senior Principal Software Engineer

Sr. Principal Engineer, Cloud Enable - IT Architecture
Principal Engineer
25 Principal Software Development Engineer
Principal Network Engineer Manager

Principal Engineer/Manager
10 Principal Software Engineer/Manager

Top Companies Base Pay Variables Breakup

$40,000 $5,000 $7,000
Principal Engineer Source: Draup $7,550 $3,370
$34,540
Large Scale Mid Scale Small Scale $2,840 NA
$33,290
Company Size $1,855 $3,180
$30,850 15
$10,010 $5,025
Note: Draup Talent Cost Modular was used to analyse the represented data $50,200
Note: Bonus and stock options are calculated with respect to the base pay. Total Equity aggregates grant date fair Source: Draup 15
value of stock and option awards and long-term incentives granted during the fiscal year (2019 – 2020) Bonus Equity
Hotspot Location Analysis – Gdansk, Poland (1/2): Oliwa and Matarnia are the major hotspot with the presence of
top employers such as ADVA, Flex, Spartez, and Intel Corporation in Gdansk Metropolitan Area, Poland

Gdansk Metropolitan Area - Hotspot Talent Availability

Fresh Talent GEOGRAPHY TOP EMPLOYERS
Osowa Talent Quality
Talent Growth

Oliwa Median Cost Nordea, Spartez, Alior bank, State Street, Thomson
Oliwa
Ease of Hiring Reuters, Kemira

Regulatory Cost
Infrastructure Cost
Zaspa
Start up Index Matarnia Intel Corporation, ABB, Rockwell Automation
Early findings Limited concerns,
raise no concerns likely not significant
Matarnia
Location Characteristics

Business Considerations Location Attributes

Business costs relative Population 470,900
Moderate
to US average Demographics
Business Cost Annual Population Growth 1.1%
Effective Corporate tax
rate Moderate Cost of living $1,960/Month
(Low/Moderate/High) Source: Draup
Quality of life Quality of Living High
Real Estate cost $4,248/ sq.m
Commercial Real Avg. Commute time (One
30 min
Estate Way)
Commercial real estate 16
4.9% Gender Diversity Gender Ratio (M/F) 94:100
vacancy rate
Major Hotspots Emerging Hotspots
Source: Draup 16
Source: Cushman and Wakefield, Statista website, Numbeo database, Central Statistics Office,
Hotspot Location Analysis – Gdansk, Poland (2/2): ADVA, Intel, Flex, and Atlassian are some of the top companies
employing a large number of Principal Engineers in Gdansk

Principal Engineer Median Base Pay in (USD) (Relevant Talent Pool)

Top Employers
$ 78,300 Talent Size Common Job Titles
Median Talent Cost of a Principal Engineer
Principal Software Engineer
20 Principal Engineer R&D System
Principal Application Engineer
$102,000
Principal Software Engineer
15 Principal Firmware Engineer
Median Salary (USD) per annum

$81,000
Principal Engineer – Fault Finding
10 Principal Engineer - Telematics

$52,000 Senior Principal Engineer – Software

10 Principal Software Engineer
Principal Java Developer

Top Companies Base Pay Variables Breakup

$106,000 $6,300 NA

$87,300 $4,100 NA
Principle Engineer Source: Draup

Large Scale Mid Scale Small Scale $98,100 NA NA

Company Size NA NA 17
$86,100
Note: Draup Talent Cost Modular was used to analyse the represented data Bonus Equity
Note: Bonus and stock options are calculated with respect to the base pay. Total Equity aggregates grant date fair Source: Draup 17
value of stock and option awards and long-term incentives granted during the fiscal year (2019 – 2020)
About Draup

Source: Draup

18

Source: Draup 18
Draup leverages Machine learning models to perform prior analysis and can replicate it on a broader level for any job
roles/skills across business functions

Draup Capabilities & Data Assets EMPOWERS DECISION MAKING IN

LOCATION
Location Assessment
INTELLIGENCE
ROLES & SKILLS
DIVERSITY INTELLIGENCE
Strategic Workforce Planning
TAXONOMY

UNIVERSITY
Peer Benchmarking
INTELLIGENCE
DIGITAL IMPACT ON Explore Diverse University Relations
TRADITIONAL ROLES Job Roles,
Locations and TALENT Recruitment
Ecosystem INTELLIGENCE
PEER Insights
INTELLIGENCE Compensation & Benefits

Diversity & Inclusion

Source: Draup
CAREER PATH
COURSES/
PREDICTOR
CERTIFICATIONS Mergers and Acquisitions 19

and diverse other use cases…

Source: Draup 19
Draup for Location Intelligence: Draup analyzes 4,500+ job roles across 2,500+ locations to help companies understand
talent ecosystem with insights around talent cost, required skills, job demand, and peers

Source: Draup

20

Source: Draup 20
 Source: Draup
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