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 Agent 365 Foundation team to own the compute platform for Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Copilot agent workloads. This role involves setting the technical direction and architecture for platform services and APIs that provision, scale, and secure containerized compute. Key responsibilities include leading multi-team efforts across networking, identity, and capacity, while ensuring secure execution of untrusted and AI-generated code. The engineer will utilize C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python alongside technologies like Docker, Kubernetes, AKS, Service Fabric, and .NET. The work focuses on infrastructure engineering for mission-critical business applications, specifically solving problems related to multi-tenant isolation, virtual network integration, and the infrastructure requirements of fast-growing agentic AI workloads to ensure reliability and cost efficiency.
What does a Software Engineer earn?
Median $197400 from 2576 postings across 150 companies.
Set the technical direction and architecture for platform services and APIs to provision and secure containerized compute.
Drive multi-quarter platform investments from ambiguous problem statements through design, staged rollout, and live-site operation.
Lead the networking, identity, and isolation strategy, including virtual network integration and managed identity.
Oversee the safe execution of untrusted and AI-generated code using secure design principles and formal validation.
Lead incident retrospectives to identify root causes, implement repair actions, and participate in the on-call rotation.
Drive capacity planning and infrastructure cost efficiency using telemetry and usage data.
Mentor engineers and raise design and code quality through rigorous reviews and sharing best practices.
What we're looking for
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field and 6+ years of technical engineering experience in languages like C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python (or equivalent).
Ability to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check.
Master's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field and 8+ years of technical engineering experience in languages like C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python (preferred).
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field and 12+ years of technical engineering experience in languages like C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python (preferred).
Deep expertise with container technologies like Docker and Kubernetes and Azure compute services such as AKS, Service Fabric, or Virtual Machine Scale Sets (preferred).
Expertise with Microsoft stack technologies, particularly C#, .NET, and core Azure platform services (preferred).
Experience with infrastructure as code, CI/CD, and safe deployment practices using ARM, Bicep, or Azure DevOps (preferred).
Depth in Azure networking concepts including virtual networks, DNS, load balancing, and multi-tenant isolation (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