Principal Engineers play various roles in driving projects and initiatives within an organization. Each role has specific responsibilities, time commitments, and skill sets associated with it. Here’s a breakdown of these roles per Mai-Lan Tomsen Bukovec, AWS Vice President of Technology.
Sponsor
The Sponsor acts as a project or program lead, responsible for ensuring decisions are made and obstacles are cleared. While this role can be played by a manager, it is not a requirement. Sponsors focus on driving progress, resolving analysis paralysis, and escalating issues when necessary. Their responsibility spans all aspects of project delivery, including product definition and organizational alignment.
This role is highly time-consuming, with a limit of two projects at a time. While not every year requires being a Sponsor, prolonged gaps without playing this role might indicate a need to step in. Sponsorship develops skills in decision-making and alignment across multiple dimensions.
Guide
Guides are domain experts who provide technical leadership, particularly in architecture and design. They often create exemplary artifacts like design documents or code that illustrate broader patterns for the team. Unlike Sponsors, Guides focus exclusively on the technical aspects of a project and work through others to influence team-wide solutions.
Guides are deeply involved in technical design but are not the sole architects. They aim to influence teams rather than individuals, distinguishing them from mentors. Due to its demands, a Guide can effectively manage at most two projects or just one if also serving as a Sponsor.
Catalyst
Catalysts are responsible for getting ideas off the ground, even when the ideas aren’t originally theirs. They create prototypes, develop concepts, and drive discussions with senior decision-makers to secure buy-in and resources. Catalysts are more than idea generators; they ensure concepts are well-thought-out and actionable.
Once a project is underway with a dedicated team, the Catalyst’s role concludes. At that point, they may transition into other roles, such as Sponsor or Guide, or step away entirely. Catalysts are particularly vital for ambitious, complex, or ambiguous problems.
Tie-Breaker
The Tie-Breaker steps in during decision-making deadlocks. This role involves deeply understanding the differing positions, weighing the options, and making a final decision. After resolving the issue, Tie-Breakers communicate the rationale clearly to the team, ensuring all members understand the reasoning behind the choice.
This is a temporary, “moment-in-time” role, activated only when necessary. Tie-Breakers must exercise great judgment, listen effectively, and avoid becoming a decision bottleneck. Frequent reliance on a Tie-Breaker may indicate a broader need for decision-making guidance within the team.
Catcher
Catchers are responsible for rescuing projects that have gone off track. They step in to prioritize tasks, analyze the problem quickly, and formulate a pragmatic plan under tight deadlines. Unlike Tie-Breakers, Catchers focus on diagnosing issues and guiding projects back to stability.
This role, while important, should not dominate a Principal Engineer’s time. Over-reliance on Catchers can hinder the development of other leadership skills across the team. Ideally, the skills required for this role should be distributed among more engineers to prevent bottlenecks.
Participant
Participants contribute to projects without taking on explicit leadership roles. Active participants are hands-on, engaging in design discussions, coding, or specific tasks. Passive participants, on the other hand, may offer occasional feedback or attend meetings without deeper involvement.
While active participation is more impactful, passive roles can be useful if time-boxed (e.g., during office hours). However, it is important to avoid overcommitting as a Participant in too many initiatives.