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Microsoft Principal Engineer Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Principal Software Engineer

Redmond, WA · On-site

$142K - $274K/yr

Microsoft's Azure Data engineering team is leading the transformation of analytics in the world of ... The Azure Monitor Agents Team is looking for a Principal Software Engineer to help us accelerate ...

Principal Engineer, Principal Engineer, Technical Lead, Software Engineer, or related occupation ... Developing secure and standards-compliant code across multiple platforms (Microsoft stack and open ...

Overview Microsoft Silicon, Cloud Hardware, and Infrastructure Engineering (SCHIE) is the team ... We are looking for a Principal Product Engineer to join the team. Responsibilities * Responsible ...

Overview Microsoft Silicon, Cloud Hardware, and Infrastructure Engineering (SCHIE) is the team ... We are looking for a Principal Silicon Engineer to join the team. #SCHIE Responsibilities * Design ...

Job Summary The Principal Engineer operates at the intersection of deep technical execution and ... Experience with Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) * Experience with Google Business ...

Showing results 41-60

Microsoft Principal Engineer information

See salary details

$74K

$147.2K

$212.5K

How much do microsoft principal engineer jobs pay per year?

As of Aug 19, 2026, the average yearly pay for microsoft principal engineer in the United States is $147,220.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $118,500.00 and $173,000.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What is a Microsoft Principal Engineer?

Microsoft Principal Engineers are highly experienced technical leaders responsible for designing complex systems, providing architectural guidance, and driving innovation within the company. They often serve as technical mentors to other engineers, lead cross-functional projects, and help set technical direction for their teams or divisions. Principal Engineers have deep expertise in their fields and play a key role in shaping Microsoft's products and engineering culture. Their responsibilities also include collaborating with stakeholders across the organization and ensuring that solutions align with business goals.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a Microsoft Principal Engineer?

To thrive as a Microsoft Principal Engineer, you need advanced expertise in software engineering, architecture design, and a deep understanding of computer science principles, often supported by a relevant degree and extensive experience. Proficiency with Microsoft technologies such as Azure, .NET, Visual Studio, and familiarity with DevOps tools and cloud platforms is essential, and certifications like Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect are highly valued. Strong leadership, communication, and strategic thinking enable you to mentor teams and drive complex projects. These skills ensure you can deliver innovative solutions at scale, lead technical direction, and contribute to Microsoft's engineering excellence.

What are some common challenges faced by a Microsoft Principal Engineer when leading cross-functional projects?

As a Microsoft Principal Engineer, one common challenge is aligning diverse technical and business teams toward a shared vision, especially in large-scale, cross-functional projects. You’ll often need to balance immediate project needs with long-term architectural goals, while ensuring effective communication across teams with varying priorities and expertise. Navigating organizational complexity and influencing without direct authority are key aspects of the role. Success relies on strong leadership, stakeholder management, and the ability to drive consensus among senior engineers, product managers, and other stakeholders.

What is the difference between Microsoft Principal Engineer vs Microsoft Senior Engineer?

CriteriaMicrosoft Principal EngineerMicrosoft Senior Engineer
Required CredentialsBachelor's or higher in CS or related field; extensive experienceBachelor's or higher in CS or related field; significant experience
Work EnvironmentLeadership in technical projects, cross-team collaborationIndividual contributor, focused on project execution
Employer & Industry UsageUsed across Microsoft for senior technical leadership rolesCommonly used for experienced technical contributors
Search & Comparison IntentUnderstanding senior technical roles at MicrosoftDistinguishing levels of seniority within Microsoft engineering

The Microsoft Principal Engineer is a senior technical leadership role focused on guiding large projects and influencing technical strategy, often leading multiple teams. In contrast, the Microsoft Senior Engineer is an experienced individual contributor primarily responsible for executing complex technical tasks. Both roles require strong technical credentials, but the Principal Engineer emphasizes leadership and strategic impact, while the Senior Engineer concentrates on technical expertise and project delivery.

Is a Microsoft Principal Engineer a high position?

A Microsoft Principal Engineer is a senior technical leadership role within the company, often considered a high-level position that involves guiding technical strategy, mentoring teams, and contributing to complex projects. It typically requires extensive experience, advanced technical skills, and a strong track record of innovation and impact.

What does a Microsoft principal engineer do?

A Microsoft principal engineer is a senior technical leader responsible for designing, developing, and guiding complex software systems and solutions. They often lead technical projects, mentor engineering teams, and collaborate with stakeholders to ensure technical excellence and innovation. This role typically requires deep expertise in software engineering, strong problem-solving skills, and familiarity with Microsoft's tools and technologies.
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Cities with the most Microsoft Principal Engineer job openings:

What job categories do people searching Microsoft Principal Engineer jobs look for?

The top searched job categories for Microsoft Principal Engineer jobs are:

Infographic showing various Microsoft Principal Engineer job openings in the United States as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 89% Full Time, 7% Part Time, 1% Temporary, and 3% Contract. Highlights an 88% Physical, 5% Hybrid, and 7% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $147,220 per year, or $70.8 per hour.

Principal Subsystem Design Manager

Microsoft

Mountain View, CA • On-site

Full-time

Posted 19 days ago


Microsoft rating

8.5

Company rating: 8.5 out of 10

Based on 132 frontline employees who took The Breakroom Quiz

78th of 245 rated software companies


Job description

Overview
Microsoft Silicon, Cloud Hardware, and Infrastructure Engineering (SCHIE) is the team behind Microsoft's expanding Cloud Infrastructure and responsible for powering Microsoft's "Intelligent Cloud" mission. SCHIE delivers the core infrastructure and foundational technologies for Microsoft's over 200 online businesses including Bing, MSN, Office 365, Xbox Live, Teams, OneDrive, and the Microsoft Azure platform globally with our server and data center infrastructure, security and compliance, operations, globalization, and manageability solutions. Our focus is on smart growth, high efficiency, and delivering a trusted experience to customers and partners worldwide and we are looking for a Principal Subsystem Design Manager to help achieve that mission.
As Microsoft's cloud business continues to grow the ability to deploy new offerings and hardware infrastructure on time, in high volume with high quality and lowest cost is of paramount importance. To achieve this goal, the Artificial Intelligence System on Chip (AISoC) team is instrumental in defining and delivering operational measures of success for hardware manufacturing, improving the planning process, quality, delivery, scale and sustainability related to Microsoft cloud hardware. We are looking for a Principal Subsystem Design Manager with a dedicated passion for customer focused solutions, insight and industry knowledge to envision and implement future technical solutions that will manage and optimize the Cloud infrastructure.
We are looking for a Principal Subsystem Design Manager to join the team.
Responsibilities
The AISoC silicon team is seeking a Principal Subsystem Design Manager to deliver premium-quality designs once considered impossible. We are responsible for delivering cutting-edge, custom Intellectual Property (IP) and System on Chip (SoC) designs that can perform complex and high-performance functions in an extremely efficient manner.
  • Build, hire, and mentor a team of engineers, supporting their career growth and professional development.
  • Manage a Subsystem design team with focus on architectural and micro-architectural based functions and features.
  • Technically lead one or more Subsystems.
  • Interact with architects to develop micro-architectural specifications and work with DV engineers to execute them.
  • Collaborate across teams on vertical and horizontal reuse of components.
  • Apply Agile development methodologies including code reviews, sprint planning, and feature deployment.
  • Provide technical leadership through mentorship and collaboration.

Qualifications
Required Qualifications:
  • Doctorate in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 3+ years technical engineering experience OR Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 6+ years technical engineering experience OR Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience OR Equivalent Experience.

Other Requirements:
  • Ability 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.
  • This role will require access to information that is controlled for export under export control regulations, potentially under the U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations or Export Administration Regulations, the EU Dual Use Regulation, and/or other export control regulations. As a condition of employment, the successful candidate will be required to provide either proof of their country of citizenship or proof of their US. residency or other protected status (e.g., under 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3)) for assessment of eligibility to access the export-controlled information. To meet this legal requirement, and as a condition of employment, the successful candidate's citizenship will be verified with a valid passport. Lawful permanent residents, refugees, and asylees may verify status using other documents, where applicable.

Preferred Qualifications:
  • 9+ years of related technical engineering experience
    • OR Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 6+ years technical engineering experience or internship experience
    • OR Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 4+ years technical engineering experience or internship experience
    • OR Doctorate degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 3+ years technical engineering experience.
  • 8+ years expertise in digital logic design including microarchitecture specification development, RTL coding in Verilog/System Verilog, design verification collaboration, and CDC/Lint closure.
  • 8+ years of experience in synthesis, timing constraints, power / performance / area (PPA) trade-offs and post-silicon debug.
  • 15+ years of relevant experience.
  • 7+ years experience with lead roles across cross-functional / cross-time-zone engineering teams.
  • Lead experience for an IP or SS related to CPUs, VPUs, GPUs, Direct Memory Access (DMA) engine, Tensor unit, or similar
  • Experience of working on Artificial Intelligence (AI) / Machine Learning (ML) SoCs
  • Experience in Scripting language such as Python or Perl.
  • Experience with design quality and static checks, DFT implementation and hand off to physical design.

#SCHIE
Silicon Engineering M5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142,800 - $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.
Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:
https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay
This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.
Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.

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About Microsoft

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Our infrastructure is comprised of a large global portfolio of more than 100 datacenters and 1 million servers. Our foundation is built upon and managed by a team of subject matter experts working to support services for more than 1 billion customers and 20 million businesses in over 90 countries worldwide. With environmental sustainability and optimization at the forefront of our datacenter design and operations, we continue to grow and evolve as we meet the ever-changing business demands that hold Microsoft as a world-class cloud provider.

Industry

Computer and computer peripheral equipment and software wholesalers

Company size

10,000+ Employees

Headquarters location

Redmond, WA, US

Year founded

1975

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