A week in my life as a Principal Software Engineer at ComplyAdvantage

This is a syndication of a post I wrote for the ComplyAdvantage Technology Blog.

Principal Software Engineers at ComplyAdvantage need to paint with a broad brush. Every week we must apply the full gamut of skills learnt during our careers as a Software Engineer. From writing code to technical design. Mentoring to managing stakeholders. Reviewing merge (pull) requests for a Junior Software Engineer to presenting at the Executive level.

I’m Mark. That’s me in with the light shirt and crossed arms in the header image above, and I am a Principal Software Engineer here at ComplyAdvantage aligned to our Platform Tribe (which is responsible for platform-level services). A frequent question I get when I tell someone my level is “What does it mean to be a Principal Software Engineer?”. The intelligent quip is “I’ll let you know when I figure it out”. Every week is different, but this is a fairly typical snapshot of my life in this role. Although every Principal Software Engineer’s life is different, I hope I can partially demystify some responsibilities of this role.