This role pays more than
54%
of similar roles. Most pay
$185,187–$231,000
— the shaded band above.
At the midpoint, this role pays about
$209k
versus about
$208k
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
588 open roles
on FindRole.
Listed pay typically runs
$119,800–$234,700
across 570 roles with salary data.
As a Principal Software Engineer on the Copilot Security Engineering team, you will lead the architecture and development of systems designed to identify, evaluate, and mitigate emerging AI security threats. You will be responsible for designing distributed systems that provide telemetry, reproducibility, CI/CD safety gates, and automated validations while ensuring high standards for availability, reliability, and scalability. Your daily work involves building tools for adversarial testing, model evaluation, risk measurement, and secure deployment workflows to protect next-generation AI experiences. The role requires proficiency in programming languages such as C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python. You will collaborate with security researchers, red teams, and applied scientists to translate risks into actionable engineering plans. This position focuses on solving complex problems regarding incident response, monitoring infrastructure, and establishing durable protection across the company's AI ecosystem.
What does a Software Engineer earn in Washington?
Median $208250 from 283 postings across 29 companies.
Design and implement distributed systems for security improvements, telemetry, and automated validation gates.
Set engineering direction for tools supporting adversarial testing, model evaluation, and risk measurement.
Ensure security mitigations meet high standards for availability, reliability, performance, and scalability.
Translate identified risks into actionable engineering plans and hardening strategies with cross-functional teams.
Develop capabilities to increase detection coverage and accelerate time-to-mitigation for AI systems.
Create reusable patterns and platform approaches that scale across the Microsoft AI ecosystem.
Communicate technical strategy, progress, and risk assessments clearly to leadership and partner teams.
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.
Ability to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check.
Master's Degree in Computer Science or related field and 8+ years of engineering experience (preferred).
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related field and 12+ years of engineering experience (preferred).
Experience building or operating security critical systems, evaluation frameworks, or platform services (preferred).
Familiarity with adversarial testing, AI/ML evaluation, telemetry pipelines, or secure by design engineering practices (preferred).
Experience partnering with applied science, security research, red teams, or Responsible AI stakeholders (preferred).
Proven ability to influence cross-organizational partners and communicate technical strategy to senior leadership (preferred).
Azure
Python
C++
C#
Java
JavaScript
C
Machine Learning
Distributed Systems
CI/CD
DevOps
Azure OpenAI
Azure ML
Azure AI Studio
Software Architecture
SDLC
Telemetry