Yes, people at staff+ level are routinely hired. But these are typically very senior positions and you are expected to be in some way transformative. Staff engi

Yes, people at staff+ level are routinely hired. But these are typically very senior positions and you are expected to be in some way transformative. Staff engineers are roughly equivalent seniority to a manager of 6-12 people and should bring significant domain expertise. Principal is an end-career role a small fraction of people reach after 30 years in the industry. They’re roughly equivalent to a director, who in the FAANG model leads 50-500 people. It’s not surprising that the requirements are very high. These roles exist to fill a specific business need. Caveat: this all applies to FAANG and adjacent. Other industries use different titles, but the use of the word “staff” usually indicates that you’ve adapted the Google career ladder.