below marketmost similar roles pay hereabove market
This role pays more than
65%
of similar roles. Most pay
$169,550–$230,625
— the blue band above.
At the midpoint, this role pays about
$209k
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
694 open roles
on FindRole.
Listed pay typically runs
$119,800–$234,700
across 651 roles with salary data.
As a Principal Software Engineer on the M365 Enterprise Search Platform team, you will design, build, and operate large-scale distributed systems that power the retrieval and grounding technologies for Microsoft 365 Copilot. You will develop services enabling intelligent access to organizational knowledge across files, emails, meetings, and chats. Your daily work involves solving complex challenges in information retrieval, ranking, relevance, and agentic reasoning while applying modern Agentic Engineering practices to improve development efficiency. You will utilize coding skills in languages such as C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python to build scalable, reliable platforms. This role focuses on the technical intersection of Search, AI, and Platform engineering to provide high-quality software solutions for next-generation Copilot experiences and autonomous workflow automation.
What does a Software Engineer earn?
Median $197400 from 2576 postings across 150 companies.
Design and build search, retrieval, and RAG solutions for Microsoft 365 Copilot.
Develop, debug, test, and troubleshoot large-scale distributed systems.
Apply Agentic Engineering practices to improve development efficiency across the software lifecycle.
Drive reliability, performance, scalability, and operational excellence for cloud-scale services.
Build platforms and workflows to enable the safe operation of AI-powered systems at scale.
Influence technical strategy and lead architecture reviews for enterprise search and grounding.
Mentor engineers and drive engineering excellence through data-driven decision making and automation.
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 pass the Microsoft Cloud background check every two years.
8+ years of software engineering experience building large-scale cloud services and distributed systems (preferred).
Solid technical expertise in software design, development, debugging, testing, and operational excellence (preferred).
Experience building search, retrieval, AI, or RAG-based platforms and services (preferred).
Experience with modern AI and Agentic Engineering practices, including workflow automation and AI-assisted development (preferred).
Proven ability to drive technical strategy, architecture reviews, and engineering best practices (preferred).
Excellent communication, collaboration, and cross-functional leadership skills (preferred).
Azure AI Search
Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
C#
Java
C++
Python
Rust
Distributed Systems
Cloud-Native Architecture
Vector Databases
Information Retrieval
Telemetry
Monitoring
SaaS
Networking
Storage Systems