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 serves as a founding technical leader for the next generation of a modern commerce platform. In this hands-on individual contributor role, you will define the engineering direction, establish standards, and create reusable patterns for a future commerce engineering team. You will own the end-to-end technical strategy, designing system boundaries, APIs, and integration patterns for product lifecycles, pricing, and checkout flows. You will also design for AI-assisted and agentic commerce through controlled interfaces. Key responsibilities include managing migration risks, evaluating build-versus-buy choices, and ensuring transaction integrity across distributed workflows. Required skills include coding in C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python. You must possess experience in distributed systems, SaaS integrations, and architecture leadership to solve complex commerce and platform modernization problems.
What does a Software Engineer earn?
Median $197400 from 2576 postings across 150 companies.
Own the end-to-end technical strategy and system design for the commerce ecosystem and its evolution roadmap.
Define system boundaries, data ownership, APIs, and integration patterns across the entire product and order lifecycle.
Connect commerce capabilities to payments, tax, fraud prevention, fulfillment, and telemetry systems.
Evaluate build-versus-buy choices, configuration versus customization, and vendor exit options.
Design for transaction integrity, idempotency, reconciliation, and failure recovery across distributed APIs and event-driven workflows.
Establish engineering standards, reusable patterns, and development practices for the future commerce engineering team.
Design and build the platform for AI-assisted and agentic commerce through well-defined interfaces and controlled access.
Lead technical and code reviews to resolve conflicting approaches and document important architectural decisions.
What we're looking for
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field and 6+ years of technical engineering experience with coding in languages like C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python.
Equivalent experience to the degree and years of experience requirement.
Architecture leadership experience to lead complex, cross-team system design and influence technical decisions (preferred).
Engineering experience designing reliable distributed systems and modernizing critical platforms while managing migration risk (preferred).
Experience with commerce platforms, SaaS integrations, vendor evaluation, and governed AI capabilities (preferred).
Distributed Systems
Large Language Models
Python
Java
C#
C++
JavaScript
C
CI/CD
Cloud Infrastructure
Observability
API Design
Concurrency
Data Management
Telemetry
Profiling
Platform Engineering
Configuration Management
Service Frameworks