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Principal Software Developer Jobs in Seattle, WA

Principal Software Engineer

Bellevue, WA · Hybrid

$152K - $204K/yr

Hybrid role: 3 days/week in office Role Overview As a Principal Software Engineer at MediaAlpha, you will be a technical leader accountable at the ecosystem level. You own the architecture, health ...

Principal Software Engineer

Bellevue, WA · On-site

$152K - $204K/yr

Hybrid role: 3 days/week in office Role Overview As a Principal Software Engineer at MediaAlpha, you will be a technical leader accountable at the ecosystem level. You own the architecture, health ...

Principal Software Engineer- Eng

Seattle, WA · On-site

$153K - $206K/yr

Principal Software Engineer-ENG: This Principal Software Engineer- Eng role serves as a technical authority and architectural leader for UKG's Pro Foundation team, which owns HCM-level platform ...

Principal Software Engineer- Eng

Seattle, WA

$153K - $206K/yr

Principal Software Engineer-ENG: This Principal Software Engineer- Eng role serves as a technical authority and architectural leader for UKG's Pro Foundation team, which owns HCM-level platform ...

Principal Software Engineer

Redmond, WA · On-site

$151K - $202K/yr

As a Principal Software Engineer, you'll drive projects from concept to delivery, influence ... You'll help modernize the advertising platform while improving performance, developer productivity ...

The Role Gradial is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to drive the architecture and technical vision behind AI-native systems that transform how creative teams build and update websites. As a ...

Principal Software Engineer

Redmond, WA · On-site

$151K - $202K/yr

We are looking for a Principal Software Engineer with experience in cloud service development to ... Ensures compliance with security, privacy, safety, and accessibility standards, leverages developer ...

Principal Software Engineer

Bellevue, WA

$152K - $204K/yr

Salesforce is seeking a Principal Software Engineer (PMTS) to join the Tableau Agent Analytics Agentforce Process Intelligence team. You will act as a technical leader across one or more teams ...

Principal Software Engineer

Bellevue, WA · On-site

$152K - $204K/yr

Salesforce is seeking a Principal Software Engineer (PMTS) to join the Tableau Agent Analytics Agentforce Process Intelligence team. You will act as a technical leader across one or more teams ...

Principal Software Engineer

Redmond, WA · On-site

$142K - $274K/yr

The Azure Monitor Agents Team is looking for a Principal Software Engineer to help us accelerate modernization of reliable and cost-efficient managed telemetry pipelines delivering observability data ...

Principal Software Engineer

Redmond, WA · On-site

$165K - $296K/yr

As a Principal Software Engineer, you will define and drive the long-term architecture for Partner Center and the broader Microsoft partner ecosystem. You will lead the technical vision for platform ...

Showing results 21-40

Principal Software Developer information

See Seattle, WA salary details

$107.5K

$160.7K

$211.1K

How much do principal software developer jobs pay per year?

As of Sep 3, 2026, the average yearly pay for principal software developer in Seattle, WA is $160,656.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $140,500.00 and $176,400.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a principal software developer?

To thrive as a Principal Software Developer, you need advanced expertise in software engineering, architecture design, and problem-solving, typically backed by a degree in computer science or a related field and extensive industry experience. Mastery of programming languages (such as Java, Python, or C#), software development frameworks, cloud platforms, and familiarity with tools like Git, Docker, and CI/CD systems is critical. Leadership, effective communication, and mentorship abilities are vital soft skills that set top performers apart in this role. These competencies ensure scalable solutions, effective project delivery, and the growth of high-performing development teams.

How does a principal software developer typically balance hands-on coding with leadership and mentorship responsibilities?

As a Principal Software Developer, you’ll often split your time between writing high-impact code and guiding technical direction for the team. While you remain involved in architecting and developing complex features, a significant portion of your role will also involve mentoring less-experienced developers, leading code reviews, and fostering best practices. You’ll collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to align technical solutions with business goals, and you’re expected to influence the overall engineering culture. This balance requires strong time management skills and a passion for both technical excellence and team development.

What is the difference between Principal Software Developer vs Senior Software Engineer?

AspectPrincipal Software DeveloperSenior Software Engineer
CredentialsBachelor's or Master’s in Computer Science; extensive experienceBachelor's or Master’s in Computer Science; 5+ years experience
Work EnvironmentLeads technical strategy, mentors teams, influences architectureDevelops features, writes code, mentors junior staff
Industry UsageUsed in large organizations, tech companies, and enterprise settingsCommon across startups, mid-sized, and large companies

The Principal Software Developer typically holds a higher-level role focused on technical leadership, architecture, and strategic planning, whereas the Senior Software Engineer primarily focuses on coding, feature development, and mentoring. Both roles require strong technical skills, but the Principal position involves broader responsibilities and influence within the organization.

Infographic showing various Principal Software Developer job openings in Seattle, WA as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 87% Full Time, 9% Part Time, and 4% Contract. Highlights an 89% Physical, 3% Hybrid, and 8% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $160,656 per year, or $77.2 per hour.

Senior Principal Software Developer

Oracle

Seattle, WA

Full-time

Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, Retirement, PTO

Re-posted 3 days ago


Oracle rating

8.7

Company rating: 8.7 out of 10

Based on 152 frontline employees who took The Breakroom Quiz

57th of 247 rated software companies


Job description

Job Description

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) delivers mission-critical applications for top tier enterprises around the world. Our cloud offers unmatched hyper-scale, multi-tenant services deployed in more than 50 regions worldwide. OCI is expanding its mission beyond the traditional boundaries of public cloud to include dedicated, hybrid and multi cloud, edge computing, and more.

At Technical Strategy and Oversight (TSO) organization, our mission is to support customer choice, transparency, and value when it comes to cloud infrastructure. We're embarking on ambitious new initiatives such as canonical implementation of core components for data planes. We are hoping to enhance engineering efficiency by concentrating our expertise on building low level systems with high performance that can be adopted by our core cloud services across OCI.

For this role, we are looking for technical leaders to build and deliver a key-value store that supports billions of keys and millions of requests per second at sub-millisecond latencies. This an exciting opportunity to deliver a new OCI service from scratch and work with senior architects and leaders at OCI. You must be self-motivated engineer with passion and expertise in solving challenging system, data-plane level and performance problems. You should be a rock solid developer able to dive deep into low-level systems, design broad distributed system interactions for high performance, high scale data-planes. You should value simplicity and scale, work comfortably in a collaborative, agile environment, and be excited to learn.

We are growing fast, still at an early stage, and working on ambitious new initiatives. You will be part of a team of smart, motivated, diverse people, and given the autonomy as well as support to do your best work. It is a dynamic and flexible workplace where you'll belong and be encouraged.

Responsibilities 

With your superb technical, research and analytical capabilities and demonstrated ability to get the right things done quickly and effectively to delight our customers, you will envision, collaborate with executives for investment and drive the software design and development for new major data-plane components of Oracle's Cloud Infrastructure. You will define the foundations for the next generation of OCI data-planes, making deep architectural changes calls as an outstanding builder and technical leader with an established industry track record of success in leading large cloud scale projects.

You will take an active role in the definition and evolution of standard practices and procedures. You will perform software development tasks associated with the developing, designing and debugging of software applications or operating systems. You will be able to work with Engineering Managers and TPMs, and providing direct guidance to junior team members. You can go from high level system design, writing architectural documentation and driving engineering peer reviews to hands-on prototyping, code reviews and project bootstrapping. You can balance speed and quality with iteration and incremental improvements. You've made life easier for other developers and have motivated your teams to make both process and service improvements with your ability to automate and instrument your service. You understand operational excellence and how to instill a culture of high quality and customer focus.

Only Oracle brings together the data, infrastructure, applications, and expertise to power everything from industry innovations to life-saving care. And with AI embedded across our products and services, we help customers turn that promise into a better future for all. Discover your potential at a company leading the way in AI and cloud solutions that impact billions of lives.

True innovation starts when everyone is empowered to contribute. That's why we're committed to growing a workforce that promotes opportunities for all with competitive benefits that support our people with flexible medical, life insurance, and retirement options. We also encourage employees to give back to their communities through our volunteer programs.

We're committed to including people with disabilities at all stages of the employment process. If you require accessibility assistance or accommodation for a disability at any point, let us know by emailing accommodation-request_mb@oracle.com or by calling 1-888-404-2494 in the United States.

Oracle is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability and protected veterans' status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Oracle will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records pursuant to applicable law.

Disclaimer:
Certain U.S. based or U.S. customer or client-facing roles may be required to comply with applicable requirements, such as immunization/occupational health mandates, and/or drug testing requirements.
Range and benefit information provided in this posting are specific to the stated locations only
US: Hiring Range in USD from: $135,200 to $306,400 per annum. May be eligible for bonus, equity, and compensation deferral.
Oracle maintains broad salary ranges for its roles in order to account for variations in knowledge, skills, experience, market conditions and locations, as well as reflect Oracle's differing products, industries and lines of business.
Candidates are typically placed into the range based on the preceding factors as well as internal peer equity.
Oracle US offers a comprehensive benefits package which includes the following:
1. Medical, dental, and vision insurance, including expert medical opinion
2. Short term disability and long term disability
3. Life insurance and AD&D
4. Supplemental life insurance (Employee/Spouse/Child)
5. Health care and dependent care Flexible Spending Accounts
6. Pre-tax commuter and parking benefits
7. 401(k) Savings and Investment Plan with company match
8. Paid time off: Flexible Vacation is provided to all eligible employees assigned to a salaried (non-overtime eligible) position. Accrued Vacation is provided to all other employees eligible for vacation benefits. For employees working at least 35 hours per week, the vacation accrual rate is 13 days annually for the first three years of employment and 18 days annually for subsequent years of employment. Vacation accrual is prorated for employees working between 20 and 34 hours per week. Employees working fewer than 20 hours per week are not eligible for vacation.
9. 11 paid holidays
10. Paid sick leave: 72 hours of paid sick leave upon date of hire. Refreshes each calendar year. Unused balance will carry over each year up to a maximum cap of 112 hours.
11. Paid parental leave
12. Adoption assistance
13. Employee Stock Purchase Plan
14. Financial planning and group legal
15. Voluntary benefits including auto, homeowner and pet insurance
The role will generally accept applications for at least three calendar days from the posting date or as long as the job remains posted.

Career Level - IC5


  • 10+ years of relevant engineering, architecture, or development/operational experience. 
  • Provides strategic technical guidance to senior leadership, influencing org-wide goals and driving alignment across initiatives.
  • Strong experience of C/C++ and open to work on Rust 
  • Strong experience with high-concurrency systems.
  • Experience in low-level and performance-critical system level design and service development. 
  • Working experience with some of the following technologies: High performance distributed storage, Write-Ahead Logging (WAL), Indexing strategies (B-tree, LSM tree), data partitioning/sharding, Raft, Paxos, or Multi-Paxos for distributed consistency,Transaction Management (MVCC), Partitioning/sharding, distributed transactions, CAP theorem trade-off
  • Strong team player with outstanding communication, organization, and interpersonal skills. 
  • Comfortable with complex, swiftly evolving software development environments. 
  • Ability to learn new technologies quickly and drive, follow, evangelize, and improve cross-team processes. 
  • Expert knowledge of cloud infrastructure concepts and technologies. 
  • Experience working with geographically distributed teams. 
  • Significant work experience in startups or fast-paced enterprise technology development environments
  • Demonstrates strong mentorship abilities, effectively guiding and developing teams while aligning engineers with shared objectives.

What Oracle employees say

Pay

Benefits

Hours and flexibility

Workplace

Get the full story on Breakroom


Oracle logo

About Oracle

Sourced by ZipRecruiter

An Oracle career can span industries, roles, Countries and cultures, giving you the opportunity to flourish in new roles and innovate, while blending work life in. Oracle has thrived through 40+ years of change by innovating and operating with integrity while delivering for the top companies in almost every industry. In order to nurture the talent that makes this happen, we are committed to an inclusive culture that celebrates and values diverse insights and perspectives, a workforce that inspires thought leadership and innovation. Oracle offers a highly competitive suite of Employee Benefits designed on the principles of parity, consistency, and affordability. The overall package includes certain core elements such as Medical, Life Insurance, access to Retirement Planning, and much more. We also encourage our employees to engage in the culture of giving back to the communities where we live and do business. At Oracle, we believe that innovation starts with diversity and inclusion and to create the future we need talent from various backgrounds, perspectives, and abilities. We ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to successfully participate in the job application, interview process, and in potential roles. to perform crucial job functions. That's why we're committed to creating a workforce where all individuals can do their best work. It's when everyone's voice is heard and valued that we're inspired to go beyond what's been done before.

Industry

It services

Company size

10,000+ Employees

Headquarters location

Redwood City, CA, US

Year founded

1977

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