Principal Software Engineer

Company: Microsoft
Location: Redmond
Posted on: March 14, 2026

Job Description:

Our team in Microsoft Security owns cloud services and AI powered product offerings that continuously discovers and maps a digital attack surface to provide an external view of an organization’s online infrastructure. Our mission is to empower security organizations to understand and defend against an ever-changing threat landscape. We execute this mission by turning the internet’s data into information and actionable truth that in-turn allows our product to enable its users to analyze, discover, and protect their digital footprint. We are looking for a talented, insatiably curious Principal Software Engineer with experience in designing and building products and services that process internet scale data while maintaining high availability and reliability. You will play a key role in designing, developing, and maintaining high-quality software solutions. Your expertise will help maintain and improve the accuracy and quality of the data that is collected to power services that help customers protect their digital footprint. You relish the opportunity to create world-impacting solutions and reimagining the future of enterprise surface management through the power of modern platforms. If this sounds like you, then come help us build a foundation of trust for our worlds digital future. Responsibilities Collaborate with and guide stakeholders to confirm customer/user requirements for products or solutions. Lead architectural discussions and own the architecture for products/solutions. Create and test architectural proposals and develop detailed design specifications. Develop a clear testing strategy to ensure quality and prevent regression in the product. Identify dependencies and incorporate them into design documentation. Produce extensible, maintainable, well-tested, secure, and performant code adhering to design specifications. Use various tools like debugging, testing, logging, telemetry, and AI to verify assumptions and improve product quality. Review code and test code to ensure they meet team standards, have proper test coverage, and are appropriate for the product. Qualifications Required/minimum qualifications Bachelors Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 6 years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python OR equivalent experience. Other Qualifications Candidates must be able to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role. These requirements include, but are not limited to the following specialized security screenings: Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter. Additional or preferred qualifications Masters Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 8 years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python OR Bachelors Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 12 years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python OR equivalent experience. 6 years of proven experience in designing, implementing and delivering large-scale, secure and resilient software solutions. 6 years of experience as a software engineer designing, implementing, and shipping cloud services or software products. Strong proficiency in programming languages such as Java, or C#, and familiarity with relevant frameworks and libraries. Demonstrated ability to lead and mentor junior engineers, driving technical excellence and fostering a collaborative team environment. Demonstrated ability to dive-in and learn new technologies and programming languages. Cloud and services experience, with Azure experience highly desirable. Experience designing distributed, NRT (near real-time) or Big Data systems is highly desirable. Experience building, shipping and operating consumer, scalable services and fault-tolerant distributed systems Minimum Requirements: BS or MS degree in Computer Science or Engineering OR equivalent years of work experience 6 years of proven experience in designing, implementing and delivering large-scale, secure and resilient software solutions. 6 years of experience as a software engineer designing, implementing, and shipping cloud services or software products. Strong proficiency in programming languages such as Java, or C#, and familiarity with relevant frameworks and libraries. Demonstrated ability to lead and mentor junior engineers, driving technical excellence and fostering a collaborative team environment. Demonstrated ability to dive-in and learn new technologies and programming languages. Other Requirements: - Cloud and services experience, with Azure experience highly desirable. Experience designing distributed, NRT (near real-time) or Big Data systems is highly desirable. Deep customer empathy and ability to identify customer needs Experience building, shipping and operating consumer, scalable services and fault-tolerant distributed systems Software Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $139,900 - $274,800 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $188,000 - $304,200 per year.

Keywords: Microsoft, Seattle , Principal Software Engineer, IT / Software / Systems , Redmond, Washington