Principal Software Engineer | Microsoft Careers

Microsoft

Quick summary

Work type: On-site
Location: —
Salary: $142,800–$274,800 / yr
Posted: 154 days ago
Closes: Jul 7, 2026

Market check

Salary context

Above market

How this pay compares to similar roles

Similar $191k

This role $209k

$124k most similar roles pay here $291k

This role pays more than 75% of similar roles. Most pay $174,037–$208,800 — the shaded band above. At the midpoint, this role pays about $209k versus about $191k 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 1103 open roles on FindRole.

Listed pay typically runs $119,800–$234,700 across 985 roles with salary data.

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At a glance

TL;DR · Principal Software Engineer | Microsoft Careers

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As a Principal Software Engineer on our cutting-edge team, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of digital advertising by developing an agentic auto-bidding platform that leverages AI and machine learning to optimize real-time ad auctions. Your daily responsibilities include collaborating with data scientists and engineers to define requirements for autonomous bidding capabilities, architecting large-scale data validation frameworks, and driving operational excellence as a Designated Responsible Individual (DRI). You will also build experimentation and simulation tools to validate agent behavior before live deployment, all while adopting new technologies to enhance the platform’s scalability. The ideal candidate has extensive experience in MLOps, distributed systems, and building auction platforms, with a strong background in AI techniques such as reinforcement learning and multi-agent systems.

Skills

Python Java C++ Apache Spark Apache Flink Kubernetes Docker CI/CD MLOps PostgreSQL Redis AWS Azure Google Cloud Platform Prometheus Grafana Scikit-learn TensorFlow PyTorch Kafka

What you'll do

Define requirements for agentic AI-driven bidding capabilities that observe, reason, and adapt autonomously.
Architect and implement the next-generation agentic bidding platform enabling AI agents to optimize bidding strategies.
Build large-scale data validation frameworks ensuring correctness and reliability of auction signals.
Act as Designated Responsible Individual (DRI) driving operational excellence for mission-critical services.
Develop experimentation and simulation frameworks to validate agent behavior before live deployment.
Explore emerging AI techniques like multi-agent systems to enhance platform autonomy and intelligence.

What we're looking for

7+ years of hands-on experience developing and deploying large-scale distributed systems in production environments.
4+ years of experience as a technical lead, including mentoring engineers.
Extensive knowledge in machine learning operations (MLOps) with pipeline automation and monitoring.
Hands-on experience with large-scale streaming platforms like Apache Spark or Flink.
Domain expertise in building large-scale distributed bidding or auction platforms.
Experience in real-world applications using AI techniques such as reinforcement learning.