This role pays more than
88%
of similar roles. Most pay
$174,600–$231,000
— the shaded band above.
At the midpoint, this role pays about
$282k
versus about
$203k
for comparable roles.
Based on 240 similar postings.
Employer
About Cisco
Cisco Systems is the world''s leading networking technology company, designing and manufacturing networking hardware, telecommunications equipment, and cybersecurity solutions for businesses and governments. Industry: Networking Technology & Cybersecurity
Cisco currently has
193 open roles
on FindRole.
Listed pay typically runs
$167,700–$245,200
across 193 roles with salary data.
As a Principal Software Engineer, Developer Platforms, you will join the Developer Platforms team to build internal systems that enable engineers to build, test, and release products at scale. You will provide senior technical leadership for quality systems, designing production-grade platforms to improve software validation and release confidence. Your daily work involves partnering with technical leaders to translate architectural changes into practical platform directions while guiding modernization and migration efforts across multiple engineering teams. You will contribute hands-on code while mentoring senior engineers to create durable, adopted tools. The role requires expertise in developer platforms, quality engineering, test frameworks, CI/CD, build systems, release automation, infrastructure platforms, and developer tooling. Key technical competencies include automated testing, release pipelines, service architecture, distributed systems, and potentially AI-enabled engineering workflows or quality analytics to solve complex software delivery challenges.
What does a Software Engineer earn in Washington?
Median $208250 from 287 postings across 31 companies.
Provide senior technical leadership for quality systems across Developer Platforms.
Design production-grade platforms to improve software validation and release confidence.
Translate architectural changes into practical platform directions in partnership with cross-functional leaders.
Lead modernization and migration efforts across multiple engineering teams.
Perform hands-on engineering work while mentoring senior engineers on durable platform development.
Develop tools and systems that improve the daily developer experience and software delivery lifecycle.
Communicate complex technical ideas to align engineers, managers, and stakeholders.
What we're looking for
8+ years of professional software engineering experience designing, building, and operating production-grade systems or internal platforms.
3+ years of experience in developer platforms, quality engineering, test frameworks, CI/CD, build systems, release automation, infrastructure platforms, or developer tooling.
Experience with automated testing, release pipelines, service architecture, distributed systems, or comparable modern software development practices.
Experience leading architectural change, platform modernization, or large-scale technical migrations across multiple engineering teams.
Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
Experience providing technical leadership across teams without direct reporting authority (preferred).
Experience building platforms for large internal engineering communities or organizations with thousands of developers (preferred).
Experience with AI-enabled engineering workflows, quality analytics, or emerging developer productivity technologies (preferred).
Scalable Systems
Infrastructure as Code
API
Middleware
Observability
SLOs
Security Architecture
Performance Profiling
Software Development Lifecycle
System Maintenance
Secure Coding