Principal Software Engineer, Growth

Microsoft

Confirmed live yesterday High trust

Quick summary

Work type: On-site
Location: —
Salary: $165,600–$296,400 / yr
Posted: 66 days ago
Freshness: Confirmed live yesterday
Closes: Jan 3, 2027

Market check

Salary context

Above market

How this pay compares to similar roles

Similar $200k

This role $231k

$124k most similar roles pay here $315k

This role pays more than 85% of similar roles. Most pay $174,600–$226,350 — the shaded band above. At the midpoint, this role pays about $231k versus about $200k 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.

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At a glance

TL;DR · Principal Software Engineer, Growth

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As a Principal Software Engineer - Growth (CoreAI), you will join the CoreAI team to design and build foundational engineering systems for AI-first growth and experimentation. You will be responsible for architecting paved paths for online experimentation, including standardized metrics, guardrails, analysis workflows, and rollout automation. Your daily work involves building core capabilities such as telemetry foundations, experiment assignment, feature flighting, and risk controls like kill-switches to improve decision quality across products. The role requires expertise in software engineering fundamentals, high-availability features for distributed systems, and experimentation platforms. You will utilize programming languages including C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python to solve complex problems regarding how AI experiences are measured and scaled. You must translate ambiguous goals into measurable outcomes while ensuring system reliability, performance, and security across the Copilot and AI stack.

What does a Software Engineer earn?

Median $197500 from 2196 postings across 133 companies.

See salary data

Skills

Python C# C++ Java JavaScript C AI Telemetry Feature Flags Distributed Systems Metrics Pipelines

What you'll do

Architect and build paved paths for online experimentation including standardized metrics and rollout automation.
Develop core capabilities such as telemetry foundations, experiment targeting, and feature flighting systems.
Lead multi-workstream initiatives to unify growth measurement and cross-surface funnels across products.
Translate ambiguous product goals into shippable, measurable engineering systems with clear decision criteria.
Write production code and perform design reviews while coaching others on architecture tradeoffs.
Build scalable infrastructure for risk controls including kill-switches and progressive delivery guardrails.
Drive technical strategy for measuring and scaling AI experiences across global products.

What we're looking for

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or a related technical field.
8+ years of technical engineering experience coding in languages such as C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python.
Ability to pass Microsoft Cloud background checks and other required security screenings.
8+ years of experience building and shipping high-availability features for multi-region, globally distributed systems.
4+ years of experience in experimentation with a focus on quality, guardrails, and risk management.
Experience building experimentation and measurement platforms including feature flags, metrics pipelines, and analysis tooling.
Experience using AI tools to accelerate engineering velocity and iterate on production systems.
Proven ability to translate ambiguous business problems into measurable engineering outcomes and lead cross-team initiatives.

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