This role pays more than
62%
of similar roles. Most pay
$174,600–$226,350
— 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
518 open roles
on FindRole.
Listed pay typically runs
$119,800–$234,700
across 505 roles with salary data.
As a Principal Software Engineer on the Dataverse team, you will define and drive the technical strategy for intelligent, autonomous, and globally distributed services. You will be responsible for managing and optimizing the SQL database fleet and compute resources that underpin the Dataverse platform. Your daily work involves creating clarity in complex engineering spaces, leading multi-team initiatives, and ensuring high standards for quality, security, and reliability. You will manage end-to-end ownership of critical technical areas while mentoring engineers and establishing reusable patterns. The role requires proficiency in programming languages such as C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python. You will solve complex problems related to managing, protecting, and optimizing large-scale database infrastructure for enterprise data management, ensuring the system remains resilient, scalable, and operationally excellent within a distributed environment.
What does a Software Engineer earn?
Median $195000 from 1914 postings across 140 companies.
Define and drive multi-year technical strategy and architecture for globally distributed database services.
Translate high-level strategies into executable roadmaps, milestones, and measurable outcomes.
Take end-to-end ownership of critical technical areas from problem definition through deployment and operation.
Resolve architectural disagreements and manage dependencies across multiple teams and organizational boundaries.
Balance competing priorities including strategic investments, customer commitments, technical debt, and live-site issues.
Establish automation for quality, security, compliance, reliability, and observability of mission-critical services.
Mentor engineers and review architecture and code to improve overall engineering excellence.
Define and validate safety, reliability, and correctness invariants for new and existing systems.
What we're looking for
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related field and 6+ years of technical engineering experience 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 technical engineering experience (preferred).
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related field and 12+ years of technical engineering experience (preferred).
Experience architecting and delivering large-scale production cloud services with leadership across multiple teams (preferred).
Experience with SQL and enterprise-grade relational database systems including administration, optimization, and fleet-scale automation (preferred).
Experience designing and troubleshooting scalable, resilient, event-driven systems (preferred).
Demonstrated ability to create clarity in ambiguous spaces and influence architecture across organizational boundaries (preferred).
C
C++
C#
Java
JavaScript
Python
Azure Virtual Desktop
Windows 365
client-engineering
Test Automation
Performance Measurement
Observability
Monitoring
Diagnostics