below marketmost similar roles pay hereabove market
This role pays more than
59%
of similar roles. Most pay
$174,600–$232,000
— the blue band above.
At the midpoint, this role pays about
$209k
versus about
$203k
for comparable roles.
Based on 240 similar postings.
Employer
About Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is a global technology leader producing software, hardware, and cloud services including Windows, Office 365, Azure cloud platform, Xbox gaming, and Surface devices. Industry: Software & Cloud Computing
Microsoft currently has
694 open roles
on FindRole.
Listed pay typically runs
$119,800–$234,700
across 651 roles with salary data.
As a Principal Software Engineer, AI Infrastructure, you will join a team responsible for the global platform that routes AI traffic to the correct graphics processing units. You will lead the design and implementation of large distributed systems to manage how AI requests are prioritized and matched to computing capacity. Your daily work involves writing secure code for routing and capacity planning, performing threat modeling, and participating in on-call rotations for critical services. You will utilize C#, Java, or Go, along with Python, Docker, and Kubernetes. The role requires expertise in managing GPU fleets and serving models in production. You will solve complex optimization problems to ensure that services like Azure OpenAI and Microsoft Copilot remain fast, reliable, and efficient across global infrastructure.
What does a Software Engineer earn?
Median $197400 from 2576 postings across 150 companies.
Design the architecture for managing AI traffic and computing capacity across global regions.
Write and review secure, well-tested code for routing, prioritization, and capacity planning.
Develop a step-by-step roadmap to turn long-term product visions into dependable features.
Participate in on-call rotations as a designated responsible individual for critical AI services.
Lead incident reviews and improve monitoring systems to catch and reduce service issues.
Partner with research and infrastructure teams to align system capabilities with customer requirements.
Perform threat modeling and safe deployment checks to ensure service security and compliance.
Mentor engineers and share best practices for building reliable distributed systems at scale.
What we're looking for
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field.
6+ years of technical engineering experience building distributed systems with coding in languages including C#, Java, or Go.
Ability to meet Microsoft, customer, and/or government security screening requirements, including the Microsoft Cloud Background Check.
Master's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field and 8+ years of technical engineering experience building distributed systems (preferred).
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field and 12+ years of technical engineering experience building distributed systems (preferred).
5+ years of experience running distributed services on public cloud platforms such as Azure, AWS, or GCP (preferred).
3+ years of experience with systems that route or schedule traffic or use optimization methods to allocate computing resources (preferred).
Experience with Python, Docker, Kubernetes, AI/ML infrastructure, and leading projects across 3+ partner teams (preferred).