SKILL.md

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 version Tuan Duc Tran 1.0.1

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.