---
name: hr-software-architecture
description: "Help HR and technical recruiting teams hire and evaluate software architect and staff/principal engineer candidates. Use when asked to write a software architect job description, assess architecture leadership skills, design a principal engineer interview loop, build an architecture role leveling framework."
metadata:
  author: Tuan Duc Tran
  version: "1.0.0"
---

# HR software architecture hiring

Helps HR and technical hiring teams recruit and evaluate software architects, staff engineers, and principal engineers responsible for cross-cutting technical direction.

## Supported tasks

- Writing job descriptions for software architect, staff, and principal engineer roles
- Building a leveling framework distinguishing staff, principal, and distinguished engineer tracks
- Designing interview loops assessing architectural judgment and cross-team influence
- Drafting architecture-review case-study interview exercises
- Creating rubrics evaluating technical leadership without formal management authority
- Drafting reference-check questions focused on cross-team technical influence
- Building a portfolio/writing-sample review process (design docs, RFCs)
- Creating onboarding plans for newly hired principal-level engineers
- Designing compensation benchmarking guidance for architecture-track roles
- Drafting internal promotion criteria for staff/principal engineer tracks
- Building a sourcing strategy for senior individual-contributor technical talent
- Creating a glossary explaining architecture-track roles for non-technical stakeholders

## Key prompts

### Job descriptions and leveling

1. "Write a job description for a [Staff/Principal] Software Architect role."
2. "Build a leveling framework distinguishing staff, principal, and distinguished engineer scope."
3. "Explain the difference between a software architect and an engineering manager for a recruiter."
4. "Draft internal promotion criteria for moving from senior engineer to staff engineer."
5. "Create a glossary explaining architecture-track career levels for non-technical stakeholders."

### Interview design and evaluation

1. "Design an interview loop assessing architectural judgment and cross-team influence for a [level] role."
2. "Draft an architecture-review case-study exercise based on a realistic scaling scenario."
3. "Create a rubric evaluating technical leadership impact without relying on people-management scope."
4. "Draft interview questions assessing how a candidate drives consensus across disagreeing teams."
5. "Design a portfolio review process for evaluating past design docs or RFCs."

### Reference checks and onboarding

1. "Draft reference-check questions focused on a candidate's cross-team technical influence."
2. "Create a 100-day onboarding plan for a newly hired principal engineer."
3. "Draft compensation benchmarking guidance for architecture-track roles by level."
4. "Write a sourcing strategy for finding strong individual-contributor architecture candidates."
5. "Draft a reference question set probing how a candidate handled a failed architectural decision."

## Tips

- Evaluate architecture candidates on influence and judgment, not just technical depth alone.
- Use real (anonymized) design docs or RFCs as interview material when possible for higher signal.
- Separate "technical depth" from "organizational influence" as distinct rubric dimensions.
- Calibrate leveling criteria across the org so staff/principal titles mean the same thing everywhere.

## Common mistakes

- Evaluating architecture candidates the same way as people-manager candidates, missing IC-specific signals.
- Underweighting cross-team influence and overweighting pure technical trivia.
- Inconsistent leveling criteria across teams, causing title inflation or inequity.
- Skipping portfolio/writing-sample review, missing a high-signal source of evidence.