Principal Software Engineer

Microsoft

Quick summary

Work type
On-site
Location
Redmond, WA
Salary
$142,800–$274,800 / yr
Posted
2 days ago
Closes
Dec 22, 2026
Nearby
99+ roles within 25 mi

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 559 roles with salary data.

Most-posted roles

View all roles at Microsoft

At a glance

TL;DR · Principal Software Engineer

Role Posting Log in to save

As a Principal Software Engineer in the M365 Core AI Inferencing Engineering team within Microsoft’s Copilot, Agents, and Platform (CAP) organization, you will lead the design, implementation, and delivery of large-scale AI inferencing services for millions of customers. Your day-to-day responsibilities include managing costs and availability while coaching your team to build reliable and efficient platforms used by hundreds of millions of users daily. You will work independently and collaboratively with other product teams across Power Platform, BizApps, and Microsoft to ensure seamless integration and high performance. The role requires solid coding skills in Python or C#, .Net, along with experience in building and running high-scale services, LLMs, orchestrators, embedding models, vector databases, distributed systems, message-based architecture, and OLTP/OLAP storage implementations. This position offers the opportunity to shape Microsoft’s AI-first era by solving complex technical challenges at a massive scale.

Skills

Python C# .Net LLMs orchestrators embedding models vector databases Distributed Systems Message based architecture OLTP OLAP storage implementations

What you'll do

  • Lead the design and implementation of LLM API management services for millions of customers.
  • Ensure cost efficiency and high availability in AI inferencing platform operations.
  • Coach team members to build large-scale platforms used by hundreds of millions of users daily.
  • Independently develop and collaboratively enhance AI-powered innovations with other product teams.
  • Manage technical delivery across multiple engineering organizations for complex projects.

What we're looking for

  • Solid coding skills in Python and/or C#, .Net.
  • 4+ years building and running high-scale services.
  • Experience with LLMs, orchestrators, embedding models, vector databases.
  • Implementation of distributed systems and message-based architecture.
  • High-scale OLTP or OLAP storage implementation experience.
  • Experience leading and delivering projects spanning multiple engineering organizations.

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