This role pays more than
66%
of similar roles. Most pay
$174,600–$225,000
— the shaded 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
598 open roles
on FindRole.
Listed pay typically runs
$119,800–$234,700
across 586 roles with salary data.
As a Principal Software Engineer on the Search & AI Platform team at Microsoft Bing, you will lead the design and development of core systems supporting web-index serving, big data processing, AI inference, and LLM grounding. You will architect and implement scalable distributed systems, innovate modern search retrieval using vector index engines, and develop generative search capabilities that function autonomously within large-scale infrastructure. Your daily work involves optimizing data access patterns, compute workflows, and storage strategies to meet strict SLA requirements while mentoring a high-performing engineering team. The role requires expertise in indexing technology, the end-to-end search stack, and approximate-nearest-neighbor search. You will utilize programming languages such as C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python to build robust systems that translate research advances into production-grade solutions for a generative search engine utilizing heterogeneous hardware and hybrid retrieval.
What does a Software Engineer earn in Washington?
Median $202800 from 326 postings across 28 companies.
Architect and implement scalable distributed systems for the Search & AI platform.
Develop and scale high-performance distributed services ensuring reliability and performance.
Innovate modern search retrieval systems using cutting-edge vector index engines.
Lead the technical vision for autonomous generative search within large-scale infrastructure.
Optimize data access patterns, compute workflows, and storage strategies to meet strict SLAs.
Translate research advances into production-grade systems in collaboration with cross-functional teams.
Mentor and grow a high-performing engineering team focused on long-term platform evolution.
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 and 8+ years of engineering experience (preferred).
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science and 12+ years of engineering experience (preferred).
At least 3 years of technical leadership experience designing, coding, debugging, and delivering large projects.
Hands-on experience in indexing technology and the end-to-end search stack.
Proven track record in designing and deploying scalable, distributed systems.
Expertise in Approximate-nearest-neighbor search (preferred).
Expertise in performance optimization and system architecture within large-scale processing environments (preferred).
Distributed Systems
Data Governance
C
C++
C#
Java
JavaScript
Python
Storage Systems
Data Processing
Data Lifecycle Management
Compliance
Architecture Strategy
Data Residency
Python
C++
C#
Java
JavaScript
C
Distributed Systems
Machine Learning
Generative AI
Recommendation Systems
AI Agents
Model Training
Inference Optimization
Observability
Backend Services
LLM
Python
C++
C#
Java
JavaScript
Distributed Systems
Cloud-Native Architecture
Microservices
Retrieval
Prompt Orchestration
Data Modeling
System Design
Observability
Responsible AI
Distributed Systems
Microsoft Azure
AWS
Python
C#
Java
C++
JavaScript
Cloud Computing
Service-Oriented Architecture
Observability
Reliability Engineering
AI
Web Technologies