Principal Software Engineering Architect | Microsoft Careers

Microsoft

Quick summary

Work type: On-site
Location: Redmond, WA
Salary: $165,600–$296,400 / yr
Posted: 6 days ago
Closes: Dec 6, 2026
Nearby: 99+ roles within 25 mi

Market check

Salary context

Above market

How this pay compares to similar roles

Similar $193k

This role $231k

$124k most similar roles pay here $315k

This role pays more than 90% of similar roles. Most pay $177,250–$208,800 — the shaded band above. At the midpoint, this role pays about $231k versus about $193k 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 1580 open roles on FindRole.

Listed pay typically runs $119,800–$234,700 across 1408 roles with salary data.

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At a glance

TL;DR · Principal Software Engineering Architect | Microsoft Careers

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As a Principal Software Engineering Architect on the Azure Resource Graph (ARG) team, you will lead the expansion into next-generation big data and large language model (LLM)-driven services. Your role involves designing scalable architectures for distributed systems that integrate machine learning and intelligent agents, partnering across Azure to build platform capabilities that accelerate AI adoption, and guiding engineering teams in developing high-performance services with immediate business impact. You will work on building distributed micro-services related to proprietary columnar databases, replication, batching, agentic workflows, indexing, change tracking, insights, and graph models. The ideal candidate has extensive experience in architecting large-scale distributed systems, running cloud-based services like Azure, and providing technical leadership while working closely with cross-functional teams. Proficiency in technologies such as Spark, Kubernetes, Structured Streaming, databases, and LLMs is essential for this role, which aims to transform how customers interact with and manage Azure environments at scale.

Skills

Azure Kubernetes Spark Ray LLMs RAG Python SQL Docker CI/CD Prometheus Grafana PostgreSQL Redis Hadoop Terraform

What you'll do

Design scalable architectures for distributed systems integrating machine learning and intelligent agents.
Lead ARG’s strategic evolution into large language model and agentic services.
Guide engineering teams in developing high-performance, future-ready cloud management services.
Build platform capabilities to accelerate AI adoption and enhance customer experiences.
Focus on end-to-end development and deployment of advanced data platforms and microservices.

What we're looking for

5+ years experience architecting and running large-scale distributed systems in cloud environments like Microsoft Azure.
Proven technical leadership in raising the bar for data-driven cultures across cross-functional teams.
Extensive background (4+ years) in big data systems such as Spark, Kubernetes, and Structured Streaming.
Strong problem-solving skills with AI, large datasets, and computing technologies including Spark or Ray.
Solid understanding of database internals and at least 1 year of experience with LLMs/RAG.
Focus on building high-performance cloud-scale services with immediate customer impact.

Hybrid

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Principal Software Engineer | Microsoft Careers

Microsoft

WA 82 days ago $142,800–$274,800

Azure Python Java C++ Kafka Spark Hadoop HDFS Flink Scala Docker Kubernetes CI/CD Prometheus Grafana PostgreSQL Redis Git Jenkins

Hybrid

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