below marketmost similar roles pay hereabove market
This role pays more than
68%
of similar roles. Most pay
$169,550–$220,800
— the blue band above.
At the midpoint, this role pays about
$209k
versus about
$195k
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.
The Principal Software Engineer joins the Microsoft Rewards team to lead the design, development, and evolution of full-stack experiences and platform capabilities. This role involves driving technical strategy for highly scalable customer-facing applications, backend services, APIs, and supporting platform infrastructure. You will architect end-to-end solutions, own complex cross-organizational initiatives, and mentor engineers to improve service reliability and operational excellence. The position requires proficiency in languages such as C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python, alongside expertise in modern web technologies including React, TypeScript, and Next.js. You will work within cloud-native architectures and distributed systems to solve technical problems related to building large-scale consumer-facing products, specifically focusing on loyalty platform engagement experiences across various products like Bing, Edge, and Xbox.
What does a Software Engineer earn?
Median $197400 from 2576 postings across 150 companies.
Architect and deliver end-to-end solutions across frontend, backend, APIs, and cloud platforms.
Lead the development of scalable, reliable, secure, and accessible customer experiences.
Drive technical strategy and architecture for complex, cross-team initiatives.
Translate business goals into technical solutions by partnering with product, design, and data teams.
Improve engineering velocity, service reliability, observability, and operational excellence.
Mentor engineers and raise the technical bar across the organization.
Champion modern engineering practices, security, privacy, accessibility, and AI-powered development.
Use experimentation and data insights to optimize customer engagement and product outcomes.
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.
Ability to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire and every two years thereafter.
Ability to meet Microsoft, customer, and/or government security screening requirements.
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field and 10+ years of technical engineering experience with coding in languages like C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python (preferred).
Deep expertise in modern web technologies such as React, TypeScript, Next.js, or comparable frameworks (preferred).
Solid backend and distributed systems experience using cloud-native architectures (preferred).
Experience building large-scale consumer-facing products and services (preferred).
Proven ability to lead complex cross-organizational initiatives, technical leadership, and stakeholder management skills (preferred).
Distributed Systems
Vector Index
C++
Python
Java
C#
JavaScript
Search Engine
Approximate-nearest-neighbor search
LLM
Big Data
System Architecture
Performance Optimization
Data Access Patterns
Software Development Lifecycle
Video Coding
AV1
AV2
AVC
HEVC
VVC
Deep Learning
Computer Vision
C++
Python
gStreamer
Docker
REST APIs
XML
JSON
Git
GitHub
ABR Algorithms
Video Processing