Principal Software Engineer

Microsoft

Confirmed live today High trust

Quick summary

Work type: On-site
Location: Redmond, WA
Salary: $142,800–$274,800 / yr
Posted: 13 days ago
Freshness: Confirmed live today
Closes: Apr 11, 2027
Nearby: 99+ roles within 25 mi

Market check

Salary context

Above market

How this pay compares to similar roles

Similar $195k

This role $209k

$127k $291k

below market most similar roles pay here above 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.

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At a glance

TL;DR · Principal Software Engineer

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As a Principal Software Engineer, you will design and ship features end-to-end within scalable, high-throughput distributed systems. You will own the quality, performance, and operational health of your builds by utilizing strong testing, telemetry, and thoughtful error handling to provide reliable exposure insights. Your daily work involves turning ambiguous problems in attack-path analysis, asset discovery, and AI-driven risk into well-defined actions. You will collaborate across teams to solve novel security challenges within an AI-driven threat landscape using massive datasets. The role requires proficiency in languages such as C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python, along with experience in Go. You must demonstrate expertise in designing and operating scalable cloud services on Azure, AWS, or GCP while managing production ownership and CI/CD integration.

What does a Software Engineer earn in Washington?

Median $202800 from 409 postings across 38 companies.

See salary data

Skills

C# Java Python Go C C++ JavaScript AWS Azure GCP Distributed Systems CI/CD Cloud Services Telemetry

What you'll do

Design and ship features end-to-end in scalable, high-throughput distributed systems.
Own the quality, performance, and operational health of built features.
Implement strong testing, telemetry, and thoughtful error handling for exposure insights.
Translate ambiguous problems in attack-path analysis and asset discovery into achievable actions.
Shape the technical direction and scope of assigned projects.
Build and operate scalable cloud services using Azure, AWS, or GCP.
Integrate production ownership and CI/CD pipelines into the development lifecycle.
Address security challenges within an AI-driven threat landscape using massive datasets.

What we're looking for

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or a related technical field.
6+ years of technical engineering experience coding in languages such as C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python.
4+ years of experience designing, building, and operating scalable cloud services or distributed systems on Azure, AWS, or GCP.
4+ years of programming experience in C#, Java, Go, or Python.
Experience with production ownership and CI/CD integration.
Ability to design and ship features end-to-end in high-throughput distributed systems.

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