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 Defender Experts team within Microsoft Security to build next-generation AI-powered cybersecurity experiences. This role involves designing and building full-stack capabilities, cloud-scale backend services, and APIs to transform how security incidents are detected and investigated. You will develop AI-powered security features using transformer-based models, embeddings, vector stores, large language models, and agentic workflows. Key responsibilities include owning features from architecture through production, mentoring engineers, and establishing engineering patterns for secure AI capabilities. You will utilize C#, Java, or C++ alongside Azure technologies and machine learning frameworks like PyTorch or TensorFlow. The work focuses on solving complex problems at the intersection of distributed systems, cybersecurity, and generative AI to improve threat detection, investigation, and response experiences for customers.
What does a Software Engineer earn?
Median $197400 from 2576 postings across 150 companies.
Design and operate scalable, real-time cloud services and data-processing systems using Azure technologies.
Develop AI-powered security capabilities using LLMs, transformer-based models, embeddings, and agentic workflows.
Own features end-to-end from initial architecture and design through production deployment and monitoring.
Provide technical leadership and mentorship to engineers to establish best practices and foster growth.
Lead architecture and code reviews while evaluating technical approaches and improving development tooling.
Collaborate across engineering and security disciplines to build threat detection and response experiences.
What we're looking for
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical discipline and 6+ years of technical engineering experience in languages like C#, Java, or C++.
Ability to pass the Microsoft Cloud Background Check.
12+ years of technical engineering experience with coding in languages like C#, Java, or C++ (preferred).
Master's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field and 8+ years of technical engineering experience (preferred).
5+ years of professional software engineering experience designing, building, and delivering high-quality production software (preferred).
3+ years of experience building cloud services, distributed systems, or AI-powered systems (preferred).
Experience building and shipping AI-powered features using LLMs, machine learning models, or embeddings (preferred).
Experience with machine learning frameworks and libraries such as PyTorch or TensorFlow (preferred).
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