below marketmost similar roles pay hereabove market
This role pays more than
64%
of similar roles. Most pay
$169,550–$220,800
— the blue band above.
At the midpoint, this role pays about
$209k
versus about
$195k
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.
As a Principal Software Engineering Manager, you will lead a team to own people development, technical direction, and delivery while contributing hands-on to architecture, code, and production troubleshooting. You will work with service teams across Defender to advance deployment automation and engineering efficiency by developing reusable solutions for shared operational challenges. Your daily responsibilities include hiring, coaching, and managing engineers while setting priorities that balance reliability, security, and support. You will lead architecture for Azure deployment automation and infrastructure tooling, addressing service dependencies and failure recovery. You must utilize C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python alongside Bicep, ARM, Kubernetes, and CI/CD. The role focuses on improving deployment reliability across regional, regulated, or constrained cloud environments by using deployment telemetry and incident learning to guide testing and observability.
What does a Software Engineering Manager earn?
Median $214394 from 123 postings across 39 companies.
Hire, coach, and manage the performance and career growth of software engineers.
Set engineering priorities to balance deployment improvements with reliability and security.
Lead the architecture and design for Azure deployment automation and infrastructure tooling.
Contribute code, review designs, and troubleshoot production issues while mentoring engineers.
Partner with service teams to automate deployment preparation and reduce manual handoffs.
Drive engineering efficiency by building reusable automation for recurring operational challenges.
Use deployment telemetry and incident learning to guide testing and safe rollout practices.
What we're looking for
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related field and 6+ years of technical engineering experience with coding in C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python.
Master's Degree in Computer Science or related field and 8+ years of technical engineering experience with coding in C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python.
12+ years of technical engineering experience with coding in C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python.
Experience managing software engineers, including hiring, coaching, performance management, and career development.
Experience delivering and supporting production software through an engineering team, including prioritization and dependency management.
Experience leading teams that build and operate Azure infrastructure, deployment tooling, or shared developer platforms.
Experience with CI/CD, infrastructure as code such as Bicep/ARM, containerized services such as Kubernetes, and deployment validation and recovery.
Experience improving deployment reliability across regional, regulated, or constrained cloud environments and using incident learning to guide engineering investment.
Python
Java
C++
C#
JavaScript
C
Azure Kubernetes Service
Azure Data Explorer
Kusto
Azure Monitor
Event Hubs
Azure Functions
Power BI
Grafana
CI/CD
Infrastructure as Code
Distributed Systems
Site Reliability Engineering
Observability
Telemetry Pipelines
Microsoft Azure
Infrastructure as Code
CI/CD
Bicep
ARM Templates
Azure Kubernetes Service
Azure DevOps
Python
C#
Java
JavaScript
C
C++
Microsoft Entra ID
Azure Virtual Desktop
Azure Firewall
Azure DNS
Containers
Agile
DevOps