This role pays more than
63%
of similar roles. Most pay
$174,600–$227,300
— the shaded band above.
At the midpoint, this role pays about
$209k
versus about
$201k
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
653 open roles
on FindRole.
Listed pay typically runs
$119,800–$234,700
across 617 roles with salary data.
The Principal Software Engineering Manager joins the Service-to-Service Authentication Team to lead a diverse team of engineers in building and operating the foundation for non-human identity and communication. This role involves defining technical vision, architecture, and roadmaps for authentication capabilities that operate at cloud scale while improving engineering excellence and operational effectiveness. The manager will oversee service ownership, live-site health management, incident response, and the adoption of AI-powered engineering practices. Candidates must possess experience in coding with languages such as C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python to develop secure, resilient, and scalable identity solutions. This role addresses critical security boundaries by ensuring that services, applications, and AI agents establish trust and communicate securely across a complex ecosystem of infrastructure, products, and customer workloads within the Microsoft cloud platform.
What does a Software Engineering Manager earn?
Median $220168 from 111 postings across 39 companies.
Lead, coach, and grow a diverse team of engineers to cultivate a high-performing culture.
Define and execute the technical vision, architecture, and roadmap for service-to-service authentication at cloud scale.
Establish clear priorities, decision-making frameworks, and operating rhythms to ensure predictable delivery.
Partner across Azure, Security, and Entra teams to deliver secure and resilient identity solutions.
Champion a security-first engineering culture focused on defense-in-depth, reliability, privacy, and compliance.
Drive the adoption of AI-powered and AI-assisted engineering practices while maintaining software quality.
Manage live-site health, incident response readiness, and continuous improvement of system reliability.
Use customer and developer feedback to influence strategy and deliver impactful platform innovations.
What we're looking for
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical discipline 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.
12+ years of technical engineering experience with coding in various programming languages (preferred).
Master's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field and 8+ years of technical engineering experience (preferred).
10+ years of experience designing, building, and delivering large-scale software products, cloud services, or distributed systems (preferred).
4+ years of people management experience leading high-performing engineering teams (preferred).
Demonstrated technical leadership in defining architecture, developer experiences, and platform capabilities at scale (preferred).
Experience leveraging AI technologies to build intelligent systems and improve engineering productivity (preferred).
C
C++
C#
Java
JavaScript
Python
Cloud Services
AI
Build Systems
Validation Systems
High Availability
Observability
Security
OS bring up
Postmortem Analysis
C
C++
C#
Java
JavaScript
Python
Microsoft Azure
Distributed Systems
Telemetry
Debugging
Networking
Operating Systems
Authentication
Release Management
Observability