This role pays more than
61%
of similar roles. Most pay
$174,600–$231,000
— the shaded band above.
At the midpoint, this role pays about
$209k
versus about
$203k
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
597 open roles
on FindRole.
Listed pay typically runs
$119,800–$234,700
across 570 roles with salary data.
As a Principal Software Engineer Manager within the Quality & Validation team, you will lead the modernization, security, and evolution of validation services for Windows and Devices. You will be responsible for driving the strategy and roadmap for these services, ensuring they meet high-quality standards while promoting engineering best practices across partner teams. Your daily work involves leading architecture and technical direction, mentoring engineers, and serving as a designated responsible individual to monitor system health and performance. The role focuses on building scalable software services that utilize automation and AI to solve complex validation challenges for Windows products. You will leverage expertise in C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python to develop secure, high-availability solutions. This position addresses the critical need for robust infrastructure to support large-scale hardware, software, and cloud service deployments.
Drive the strategy and roadmap for validation services supporting Windows and Devices engineering teams.
Lead the architecture and technical direction for validation services to meet current and future requirements.
Design highly secure solutions to protect internal services and customer data.
Partner with engineering teams to establish and promote validation best practices and scalable service adoption.
Manage, coach, and mentor a team of engineers while serving as a Designated Responsible Individual (DRI).
Monitor systems for degradation or downtime and perform postmortem analysis for live site issues.
Implement technical solutions to improve the availability, reliability, efficiency, and performance of services at scale.
What we're looking for
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related field and 6+ years of technical engineering experience with coding in languages like C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python.
Ability to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check.
12+ years of technical engineering experience with coding in C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python (preferred).
Master's Degree in Computer Science or related field and 8+ years of technical engineering experience (preferred).
6+ years of people management experience (preferred).
Experience with hardware and OS bring up and bringing new hardware to market (preferred).
Experience building and shipping production grade software or services (preferred).
Experience with large scale services, build systems, validation systems, and postmortem analysis for live site issues (preferred).
C
C++
C#
Java
JavaScript
Python
Azure Virtual Desktop
Windows 365
client-engineering
Test Automation
Performance Measurement
Observability
Monitoring
Diagnostics