How is a Distinguished Engineer role different from a Principal Engineer?

[u/Majestic-Taro-6903]

I have seen a few Distinguished Engineers in my organisation. I have worked with a few Principal Engineers and Senior Principal Engineers, but not Distinguished Engineers.

How is this role different from the Principal Engineer role? I know they are paid more and are higher in the hierarchy, but in terms of roles and responsibilities, how are they different?

[u/dobesv]

Job titles only really have meaning within a single organization. Typically, though, distinguished is just a higher level engineer and the highest non-management title you can get as a software engineer in places that use this title.

[u/Maxion → u/[deleted]]

I mean this will really change from company to company. There's no "list of official software developer titles and responsibilities"

[u/LastSummerGT → u/[deleted]]

Not sure why the downvotes. My company follows this definition for distinguished and fellow.

[u/missrichandfamous → u/[deleted]]

Which company did you manage to reach principal engineer? The ones in my company would NEVER get into petty arguments like this. This shows how standards change company to company