Principal Software Engineer

Microsoft

Quick summary

Work type: On-site
Location: —
Salary: $142,800–$274,800 / yr
Posted: 38 days ago
Closes: Nov 16, 2026

Market check

Salary context

Above market

How this pay compares to similar roles

Similar $177k

This role $209k

$124k most similar roles pay here $291k

This role pays more than 79% of similar roles. Most pay $145,343–$208,800 — the shaded band above. At the midpoint, this role pays about $209k versus about $177k for comparable roles.

Based on 239 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 622 open roles on FindRole.

Listed pay typically runs $119,800–$234,700 across 571 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 in the Commercial Engineering & AI team at Microsoft, you will lead the architectural strategy and roadmap for next-generation tools and applications that drive Customer Success and Consulting businesses. Your role involves translating business objectives into secure, scalable, and cost-effective AI systems while establishing standards and reference implementations to ensure consistency across teams. You will also embed Responsible AI principles, collaborate with security and compliance stakeholders, and define patterns for prompt/data handling and access governance. Additionally, you will mentor engineers, contribute to internal technical communities, and drive alignment on system boundaries and dependency management in a high-impact leadership role requiring expertise in C#, Python, JavaScript, React, and full-stack development across frontend, backend, and cloud infrastructure.

Skills

Python C# JavaScript React AWS Azure Kubernetes Docker CI/CD Terraform PostgreSQL Redis Prometheus Grafana Git GitHub Jenkins Ansible Linux Windows REST GraphQL Swagger JSON YAML JSON-schema OAuth JWT SAML OpenAPI Dockerfile Kubernetes YAML Helm Terraform HCL Python Flask Node.js Express React Hooks Redux TypeScript GitLab CI/CD GitHub Actions CI/CD pipelines

What you'll do

Own the reference architecture and roadmap for AI/Agentic platform capabilities.
Lead architecture/design reviews to drive alignment on system boundaries and resiliency.
Embed Responsible AI principles into agentic solution design for safety and transparency.
Drive architecture improvements for reliability, observability, and cost efficiency in AI services.
Establish telemetry standards and ensure consistent instrumentation across teams for operational excellence.
Build coalitions across Microsoft engineering/product groups to resolve misalignments and drive commitments.

What we're looking for

10+ years of software engineering or solution architecture experience building complex systems.
Proficient coding skills in C#, Python, JavaScript, and React.
Experience designing and shipping AI/ML GenAI solutions including RAG, LLM orchestration, and agentic workflows.
Expertise in architecting cloud-native, distributed systems at scale with reliability and performance focus.
Strong hands-on engineering fundamentals for prototyping, debugging complex issues, and architectural investigations.
Proven ability to drive alignment and execution across multiple disciplines and stakeholders.