The Principal Engineer is the first level in the Technical Title functional pathway and carries design authority as well as the expectation of technical expertise, problem solving skills, communication skills, people skills, and contributions to the technical community. Principal Engineers are recognized technical experts in a specific aspect of a discipline and its application, are effective mentors to early career engineers, Are effective and noted for their ability in communicating technical issues throughout the organization, and are leaders applying science, engineering, theory, and processes, standards, best practices, and lessons learned.

Systems Engineering is an interdisciplinary field that focuses on how to design, integrate, verify, validate, and manage complex systems over their life cycles. The individual outcome of design efforts, an engineered system, can be defined as a combination of components and subsystems that work in synergy to collectively perform a function. At its core, systems engineering utilizes systems thinking principles to manage design activities and utilize the knowledge of system performance to influence better outcomes. Systems Engineering integrates technical, managerial, and business perspectives to reduce risk to project execution and engineering design.

Manages delivery of large integrated projects. Coordinates multidisciplinary teams, combining or adapting products to create unique infrastructure level solutions for customer requests. Considers regulatory, safety, environmental issues. Works with engineering teams and customers to manage supply chain and program logistics requirements