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 will shape Azure-native security offerings and influence platform roadmaps by replacing legacy deployment patterns with a smaller, safer control plane. This role involves defining the architecture and migration path from proprietary tools to standard .NET Aspire and Azure platform capabilities. You will turn deployment, compliance, and security requirements into typed APIs, analyzers, and build gates to move configuration failures from deployment time to authoring time. Key responsibilities include building production-quality control-plane capabilities with secure defaults and zero-touch deployment. You must use C#, modern .NET, and languages like C, C++, Java, JavaScript, or Python. The role requires designing policy-as-code, infrastructure-as-code, and developer tooling while driving technical agreements with .NET, Azure, CISO, and service team partners to ensure end-to-end security and operational readiness.
What does a Software Engineer earn in Washington?
Median $202800 from 409 postings across 38 companies.
Shape Azure-native security offerings and influence platform roadmaps.
Replace legacy deployment patterns with a smaller, safer control plane.
Define the architecture and migration path from proprietary tools to .NET Aspire and Azure capabilities.
Convert deployment, compliance, and security requirements into typed APIs, analyzers, and build gates.
Shift data residency and configuration failure detection from deployment time to authoring time.
Build production-quality control-plane capabilities with secure defaults and zero-touch deployment.
Drive technical agreements with .NET, Azure, CISO, and service team partners.
Lead design reviews, incident learning, and reusable engineering practices across teams.
What we're looking for
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related field and 6+ years of technical engineering experience with coding in C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python.
Master's Degree in Computer Science or related field and 8+ years of technical engineering experience with coding in C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python.
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related field and 12+ years of technical engineering experience with coding in C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python.
Equivalent experience to the above degree and years of experience requirements.
3+ years of experience building cloud-native applications or platform services on Azure using C# and modern .NET.
Experience designing policy-as-code, infrastructure-as-code, developer tooling, or deployment systems used by multiple engineering teams (preferred).
Experience leading technical partnerships across two or more teams, such as Azure, .NET, security, compliance, or service engineering (preferred).
Azure
C#
Python
Java
C++
C
JavaScript
Kubernetes
CI/CD
Bicep
ARM
Infrastructure as Code
Distributed Services
Observability
Production Troubleshooting
Deployment Automation
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