Principal Software Engineer

Microsoft

Confirmed live 2 days ago High trust

Quick summary

Work type: On-site
Location: —
Salary: $142,800–$274,800 / yr
Posted: 15 days ago
Freshness: Confirmed live 2 days ago
Closes: Feb 23, 2027

Market check

Salary context

Above market

How this pay compares to similar roles

Similar $200k

This role $209k

$127k most similar roles pay here $291k

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.

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At a glance

TL;DR · Principal Software Engineer

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The Principal Software Engineer joins the Hardware Health Service team within Azure to develop and operate large-scale, low-latency, and high-throughput systems. This role focuses on designing and implementing global scalable cloud services to monitor fleet hardware health and predict anomalies or failures while minimizing total cost of ownership. The engineer will evaluate AI technologies like LLMs, SLMs, and RAG architectures to improve firmware and hardware. Key responsibilities include performing root cause analysis, participating in live service operations as a designated responsible individual, integrating telemetry data for system insights, and contributing to architectural processes. Candidates should possess experience with C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python. The role addresses the technical challenge of maintaining high performance, reliability, and safety on unreliable hardware within a complex cloud infrastructure environment.

What does a Software Engineer earn?

Median $197500 from 2196 postings across 133 companies.

See salary data

Skills

Azure RAG Python C++ C# Java JavaScript C Telemetry Root Cause Analysis Data Analysis Firmware

What you'll do

Develop and operate large-scale, low-latency, and high-throughput systems for cloud infrastructure.
Evaluate AI technologies like LLMs and RAG architectures to improve firmware and hardware performance.
Implement AI platform improvements including the fine-tuning or training of custom machine learning models.
Drive continuous improvement processes based on Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and identified opportunities.
Act as a Designated Responsible Individual (DRI) to monitor and restore system functionality within SLA timeframes.
Integrate telemetry data to gain insights into system performance, reliability, and safety.
Create code to test technical hypotheses and assist with validation efforts for new features.
Automate production deployment processes while ensuring compliance with security, privacy, and accessibility standards.

What we're looking for

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or a related technical field.
6+ years of technical engineering experience coding in languages such as C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python.
Ability to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check every two years.
Experience developing and operating large scale, low latency, and high throughput systems.
Experience evaluating AI technologies like LLMs, SLMs, and RAG architectures for hardware improvement.
Experience implementing AI platform improvements such as fine-tuning or training custom ML models.
Ability to perform Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and act as a Designated Responsible Individual (DRI) for system monitoring.
Experience with telemetry data integration, quality assurance automation, and ensuring security/compliance standards.

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