below marketmost similar roles pay hereabove market
This role pays more than
69%
of similar roles. Most pay
$169,550–$214,625
— the blue band above.
At the midpoint, this role pays about
$209k
versus about
$192k
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.
The Principal Software Engineer/ Architect will join the Microsoft Security organization to define the technical vision and architecture for the Public Key Infrastructure platform. This role involves building a next-generation platform to manage the complete certificate lifecycle for public and private PKIs, ensuring secure authentication, encryption, and code signing. You will architect resilient, low-latency services that establish trust boundaries and enable cryptographic agility, including preparing for post-quantum cryptography. Key responsibilities include writing clean code, designing observable platform capabilities, and driving automation and reliability. Required skills include proficiency in languages such as C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python, with experience in distributed systems and cloud platforms like Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud. The work addresses the critical business problem of securing identities and communications across heterogeneous environments.
Define and drive the technical vision for Microsoft’s Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) platform.
Architect and build resilient, highly scalable, and low-latency services for public and private PKIs.
Design secure, reliable, and reusable platform capabilities using telemetry and data-driven architectural decisions.
Write clean, maintainable, and high-quality code to improve reliability, test coverage, and service health.
Implement cryptographic agility to accelerate the adoption of modern standards and post-quantum cryptography.
Embed security, compliance, and least-privilege principles into every layer of the platform.
Deliver automation, testing, and operational best practices to ensure engineering excellence.
What we're looking for
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field and 6+ years of technical engineering experience with coding in languages like C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python (or equivalent experience).
Ability to meet Microsoft, customer, and/or government security screening requirements, including a Microsoft Cloud background check every two years.
Master's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field and 8+ years of technical engineering experience (preferred).
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field and 12+ years of technical engineering experience (preferred).
Proficiency in programming languages such as C#, Rust, Go, Java, or C++ (preferred).
Demonstrated ability to write clean, maintainable, and efficient code (preferred).
Experience with cloud platforms such as Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud (preferred).
Strong problem-solving skills and 6+ years of experience architecting distributed systems (preferred).
Video Coding
AV1
AV2
AVC
HEVC
VVC
Deep Learning
Computer Vision
C++
Python
gStreamer
Docker
REST APIs
XML
JSON
Git
GitHub
ABR Algorithms
Video Processing