This role pays more than
57%
of similar roles. Most pay
$180,375–$231,000
— the shaded band above.
At the midpoint, this role pays about
$209k
versus about
$206k
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
644 open roles
on FindRole.
Listed pay typically runs
$119,800–$234,700
across 624 roles with salary data.
As a Principal Software Engineer, you will lead through influence to define and evolve the end-to-end architecture for complex, AI-enabled customer experience capabilities. You will be responsible for high-level technical strategy, managing trade-offs between scale, latency, security, and cost while ensuring durable outcomes. Your daily work involves building critical platform components, producing production code, and resolving complex design or performance challenges within distributed systems. You will provide leadership for applied AI systems, including model selection, evaluation, and lifecycle management. The role requires expertise in Azure, containers, WebSockets, gRPC, and GitHub-based CI/CD workflows. You will utilize tools like GitHub Copilot and Claude to drive rapid prototyping and debugging. Key technical requirements include proficiency in C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python while solving problems related to audio streaming and media-processing workflows.
What does a Software Engineer earn?
Median $196500 from 2013 postings across 147 companies.
TypeScript
Node.js
Next.js
Prisma
Distributed Systems
relational database s
APIs
Authentication
Role-Based Access Control
Security Automation
SOC 2
NIST CSF
Web Applications
System Design