What I’ve Learned from Conversations with Principal and Staff Engineers: A Tech Recruiter’s Perspective

Over two years I have had long, candid conversations with some of the sharpest Principal and Staff Engineers in ANZ tech, people at Amazon, Microsoft, Canva, Google, Atlassian, Zendesk. I wanted to know what actually gets you to that level in environments that competitive. Five things came up again and again.

1. Impact is the only currency that counts

Every engineer who climbed said the same thing: it is measurable impact on the business, not volume of work. At Amazon, you are judged on the tangible effect of what you ship, not how much of it there is. Promotions lag the work, a Staff Engineer at Google said it took six months of consistent next-level performance before the conversation even started. As one of them put it, "focus on the big rocks and leave the small ones alone."

2. Leverage is how you scale your impact

"To achieve more in less time, you need leverage," a Staff Engineer at Canva told me, and it echoed everywhere. Leverage is extending your effect beyond your own two hands: at Atlassian it often looks like technical leadership, setting direction and mentoring so teams move faster; at Amazon it is writing the code that unblocks everyone else. Find where you can multiply, not just contribute.

3. Your internal brand matters more than you expect

A Principal Engineer at Zendesk put it plainly: great work is necessary but not sufficient. The right people have to know it is yours. Engineers at Google and Atlassian stressed owning projects and being known for outcomes. Doing excellent work quietly is not a strategy. Make sure it is visible to the people who decide.

4. Collaboration is a technical skill

It came up in nearly every conversation. A Principal at Atlassian said being someone people genuinely want to work with is a force multiplier, it pulls in the mentors and sponsors who back your growth. Engineers at Amazon and Canva were blunt that soft skills are underrated in a field obsessed with the technical ones. Being the strong collaborator sets you apart.

5. What you work on beats how hard you work

"What you work on is more important than how hard you work," a Principal at Google told me. Plenty of engineers grind long hours on things that never move the needle. At Amazon they are pushed to protect focus time for high-impact work, the same theme I heard at Canva and Zendesk. Prioritise the work that matters, and get comfortable saying no to the rest.

Pulling it together

Getting to Staff or Principal is less about luck and more about sustained, deliberate effort: real impact, leverage, a visible internal brand, strong collaboration, and ruthless focus on the right work. And when you talk to a recruiter, this is exactly what they are probing for, so come with concrete examples of your impact, its reach, and the scale you operated at.

PS: I use Levels.fyi to compare titles and levels across companies.