below marketmost similar roles pay hereabove market
This role pays more than
67%
of similar roles. Most pay
$169,550–$221,850
— the blue band above.
At the midpoint, this role pays about
$209k
versus about
$196k
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 - Pro-Code Server Engineer joins the Innovation & Technology Programs team to lead hands-on technical work on high-impact AI-enabled platforms. This role involves writing production code, mentoring engineers, and defining standards for pro-code development. You will modernize mature, legacy codebases by integrating generative AI, agents, and retrieval systems while managing complex dependencies and technical debt. Key responsibilities include prototyping solutions for hard engineering problems, building developer tools, and ensuring durable architecture for security, privacy, and Responsible AI. Required skills include proficiency in languages such as C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python. You will solve the business problem of transforming legacy systems into modern, scalable services while improving developer experience and engineering effectiveness across the organization through repeatable modernization patterns and automated workflows.
What does a Software Engineer earn?
Median $197400 from 2576 postings across 150 companies.
Write and review critical production code while debugging complex failures in high-impact AI-enabled platforms.
Mentor engineers on pro-code practices, design quality, secure coding, and AI-assisted development through code reviews and tech talks.
Develop and publish engineering standards for coding conventions, CI/CD, observability, and Responsible AI development.
Modernize mature legacy codebases by defining repeatable architectural patterns, migration strategies, and characterization tests.
Prototype solutions to hard engineering problems to prove feasibility and surface risks before team commitment.
Build and promote developer tools, automation, and AI-assisted agents to improve engineering productivity and code comprehension.
Design and build scalable, secure, and cost-effective services, APIs, and orchestration layers.
Establish safe deployment practices, including progressive exposure, rollback, recovery, and end-to-end testing for production changes.
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.
Ability to pass the Microsoft Cloud Background Check.
Recent, substantial hands-on experience developing production software and modernizing large, mature, or legacy codebases.
Track record of mentoring engineers and improving pro-code effectiveness through standards and tooling.
Master's Degree in Computer Science with 8+ years of experience, or a Bachelor's Degree with 12+ years of experience (preferred).
Extensive experience designing, building, and operating large-scale server, cloud, or distributed software systems (preferred).
Deep pro-code experience writing, reviewing, debugging, and operating production software in C++, C#, Java, Go, Rust, or Python (preferred).
Experience building production AI systems using LLMs, RAG, agent orchestration, or AI evaluation (preferred).
Power BI
Microsoft Fabric
Azure
C#
Python
Java
C++
JavaScript
Azure SQL DB
Azure Cosmos DB
Azure PostgreSQL
Azure Data Factory
Azure Synapse Analytics
Azure Service Bus
Azure Event Grid
Distributed Systems
Data Engineering
Telemetry
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