[usrnm]

> the principal engineer's role would be to review designs to reduce complexity

Two questions:

1) How did this principal engineer get this title?

2) How is he going to get the next one?

[mekaron]

> How is he going to get the next one?

By delivering, or helping the team deliver, outsized returns on engineering hours invested.

If a design is bloated, a good principal engineer should point out gaps, help simplify the solution and enable the team to deliver faster. That definitely gets noticed.

[cottsak]

1) not by keeping things simple I think. (sarcasm yes, but also mostly true)