below marketmost similar roles pay hereabove market
This role pays more than
50%
of similar roles. Most pay
$204,800–$250,446
— the blue band above.
At the midpoint, this role pays about
$209k
versus about
$228k
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
634 open roles
on FindRole.
Listed pay typically runs
$119,800–$234,700
across 612 roles with salary data.
As a Principal Software Engineering Manager - AI Frameworks, you will lead and grow a team of engineers working across the AI software serving stack while remaining technically hands-on. You will set the technical vision for developer infrastructure, build systems, runtimes, and release pipelines to improve engineering velocity and build reliability. Your daily work involves guiding the team in benchmarking large language models across GPUs and Microsoft hardware, translating performance findings into production-ready builds. You will drive automation for validation, benchmarking, and regression detection using AI-assisted workflows. Key technologies include C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Python, PyTorch, TensorFlow, ONNX Runtime, CUDA, ROCm, and Triton. You will solve complex problems regarding hardware acceleration for neural networks, optimizing training and inference workloads for large-scale production environments.
What does a Software Engineering Manager earn?
Median $216300 from 127 postings across 38 companies.
Lead and develop a team of engineers across the AI software stack while remaining hands-on with architecture and design reviews.
Set the technical vision for developer infrastructure, build systems, and model performance benchmarking across GPUs and Microsoft hardware.
Oversee the benchmarking, profiling, debugging, and optimization of training and inference workloads from development to production.
Establish best practices for build reliability, system observability, regression monitoring, and release quality.
Drive automation for build, validation, and deployment workflows, including AI-assisted and closed-loop systems.
Partner with research and product teams to deliver scalable, production-ready AI performance improvements and hardware efficiency.
Manage team growth through hiring, coaching, and career development to foster an autonomous engineering culture.
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 Microsoft Cloud background checks and other government security screenings.
Master’s Degree in Computer Science and 10+ years of software engineering experience, including 6+ years in engineering management (preferred).
Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and 12+ years of software engineering experience, including 6+ years in engineering management (preferred).
4+ years of people management experience (preferred).
Strong technical foundation in software engineering, computer architecture, GPU architecture, and hardware acceleration for neural networks (preferred).
Experience leading teams in end-to-end performance analysis and optimization of LLMs, AI systems, or HPC workloads (preferred).
Working knowledge of AI/ML systems and at least one modern deep learning framework such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, or ONNX Runtime (preferred).
Azure AI
Python
C++
C#
Java
JavaScript
C
Distributed Systems
Cloud Infrastructure
Machine Learning
DevOps
Software Architecture
Telemetry
High Availability
Scalability