This role pays more than
66%
of similar roles. Most pay
$174,600–$221,850
— the shaded band above.
At the midpoint, this role pays about
$209k
versus about
$198k
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
598 open roles
on FindRole.
Listed pay typically runs
$119,800–$234,700
across 586 roles with salary data.
As a Principal Software Engineer - FDE on the Frontier Company Engineering team, you will work in a Forward Deployed Engineering model to solve complex challenges for global organizations. You will join multidisciplinary teams of data scientists and product managers to build reliable, production-ready systems and services that turn data-driven insights into scalable solutions. Your daily responsibilities include designing end-to-end architectures for cloud and AI workloads, translating business needs into technical requirements, and creating reusable solution accelerators. You will manage the full lifecycle from design through deployment while ensuring high standards of security and quality. The role requires expertise in C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python. Additionally, you will leverage advanced AI technologies, including LLM-based solutions, prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented approaches, and cloud AI platforms to deliver production-ready outcomes for large-scale enterprise customers.
What does a Software Engineer earn?
Median $197500 from 2196 postings across 133 companies.
Build production-ready systems and services that turn data-driven insights into scalable solutions.
Translate complex business needs into technical architectures and measurable outcomes for stakeholders.
Design end-to-end system architecture for cloud and AI workloads while balancing performance, cost, and reliability.
Implement enterprise security standards including threat modeling and secure coding throughout the development lifecycle.
Use CI/CD, automated testing, and observability to deliver high-quality code rapidly.
Create reusable solution accelerators and reference architectures to maximize impact across multiple customers.
Work directly with customer engineering teams to unblock delivery and ensure adoption of solutions.
Provide technical direction and mentorship to engineers across multidisciplinary teams.
What we're looking for
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field and 6+ years of experience coding in languages like C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python.
Master's Degree in Computer Science or related field and 8+ years of engineering experience (preferred).
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related field and 12+ years of engineering experience (preferred).
Experience designing, deploying, and operating AI or LLM-based solutions including prompt engineering, RAG, model tuning, and evaluation (preferred).
Familiarity with deploying and operating AI systems in production environments (preferred).
Understanding of model evaluation, data quality, and performance monitoring (preferred).
Experience using cloud AI platforms such as Azure ML or OpenAI (preferred).
C
C++
C#
Java
JavaScript
Python
Azure Virtual Desktop
Windows 365
client-engineering
Test Automation
Performance Measurement
Observability
Monitoring
Diagnostics
Python
C#
Java
JavaScript
C++
C
AI
LLM
Prompt Engineering
CI/CD
Automated Testing
Observability
Cloud AI Platforms
Software Design
Data Quality
Performance Monitoring