In many organizations, the role of Principal Engineer is considered the highest level of the ‘individual contributor’ career path. But careers aren’t like ladders—short, straight, and evenly spaced. Instead, they’re long, winding, and often challenging journeys.
Principal Engineers provide engineering leadership, and that isn’t just about deep technical expertise. It also demands broader and hard-to-master skills—like influence, communication, and strategic thinking.
With 30 years in tech, Sophie will reflect on her career and share key insights on what helped her navigate the path from Junior Developer to Principal Engineer. This talk will explore the skills, strategies, and support that can help you shape and sustain your own career growth—whether you're aiming for Principal Engineer or another leadership role.
Key takeaways:
- Your career is a path, not a ladder—the journey matters as much as the destination, if not more.
- A growth mindset and intrinsic motivation are key—you need to grow for yourself, not just to reach a goal.
- Organizations and managers should provide growth opportunities, but it’s up to you to seize them.
Speaker
Sophie Weston
Principal Engineer @ClearBank, Co-Organizer of DevOpsDays London & FastFlowConf
Sophie has spent nearly thirty years working in technology as a software engineer and DevOps advocate. These days her main focus is on ways of working, helping to create happy, effective teams and build a good engineering culture.
This is what she does in her current role as Principal Engineer at ClearBank. Prior to that, she worked with Matthew Skelton (co-author of Team Topologies) helping organisations to adopt Team Topologies and fast flow ways of working.
An active member of the wider tech community, she is an ambassador for Women In Tech York, co-organiser of DevOpsDays London and FastFlowConf, and has even been known to give the occasional talk herself.
Find Sophie Weston at:
Date
Monday Apr 7 / 10:35AM BST ( 50 minutes )
Location
Whittle (3rd Fl.)
