Principal Software Engineer

Microsoft

Confirmed live yesterday High trust

Hybrid

Quick summary

Work type: Hybrid
Location: —
Salary: $142,800–$274,800 / yr
Posted: 8 days ago
Freshness: Confirmed live yesterday
Closes: Apr 17, 2027

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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The Principal Software Engineer joins the Microsoft Security team to lead a critical subsystem within an exabyte-scale data platform. This role involves driving technical strategy, defining architecture, and managing end-to-end feature development for a high-performance system designed to ingest and normalize security data across multi-cloud and SaaS environments. The engineer will build scalable solutions to identify threats using advanced AI and machine learning while ensuring performance, resiliency, and compliance. Key responsibilities include mentoring teams, conducting code reviews, and managing test strategies. Candidates must possess experience in C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python. The role focuses on solving complex engineering challenges related to data governance, security logs, and large-scale distributed systems to help enterprises manage vast amounts of data in complex digital environments.

What does a Software Engineer earn?

Median $197400 from 2576 postings across 150 companies.

See salary data

Skills

C C++ C# Java JavaScript Python Distributed Systems AI Machine Learning GenAI Data Analytics Source Code Analysis

What you'll do

Lead the design, development, and delivery of a critical subsystem within a high-scale security data platform.
Define technical strategy and author design proposals that ensure performance, scalability, resiliency, and security.
Improve AI tools and practices across the software development life cycle, including owning AI-generated assets and controls.
Create and mentor a clear test strategy to ensure code quality, prevent regressions, and improve suite reliability.
Mentor engineering teams to produce extensible, maintainable, and secure code that meets specific performance and cost metrics.
Review product and test code to ensure compliance with standards, security best practices, and diagnosability.
Lead feature-flag and flighting experiments, interpreting results to decide on shipping and customer value metrics.
Coordinate cross-team work to identify dependencies, resolve ownership conflicts, and align delivery schedules across the stack.

What we're looking for

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or a related technical discipline.
6+ years of technical engineering experience coding in languages such as C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python.
Equivalent experience to the degree and years of experience requirements.
Ability to meet Microsoft, customer, and/or government security screening requirements.
Ability to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire and every two years thereafter.
5+ years of experience with distributed systems delivering large-scale, secure, and resilient cloud services (preferred).

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