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Principal Software Engineering Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Humana

Principal Software Engineer

Dallas, TX · On-site +1

$133K - $179K/yr

The Principal Software Engineer provides strategic advice and guidance to functional team(s ... Translate complex software engineering issues into clear business, risk, funding, and execution ...

Humana

Principal Software Engineer

Dallas, TX · On-site +1

$133K - $179K/yr

The Principal Software Engineer provides strategic advice and guidance to functional team(s ... Translate complex software engineering issues into clear business, risk, funding, and execution ...

Humana

Principal Software Engineer

Louisville, KY · On-site +1

$129K - $173K/yr

The Principal Software Engineer provides strategic advice and guidance to functional team(s ... Translate complex software engineering issues into clear business, risk, funding, and execution ...

Humana, Inc.

Principal Software Engineer

Louisville, KY · On-site

$129K - $173K/yr

The Principal Software Engineer provides strategic advice and guidance to functional team(s ... Translate complex software engineering issues into clear business, risk, funding, and execution ...

Humana

Principal Software Engineer

Louisville, KY · On-site +1

$129K - $173K/yr

The Principal Software Engineer provides strategic advice and guidance to functional team(s ... Translate complex software engineering issues into clear business, risk, funding, and execution ...

MLabs

Principal Software Engineer - US

$220K - $300K/yr

Principal Software Engineer, Backend Infrastructure (Remote, US) Location: US (remote-first, office ... Drive improvements to CI/CD, observability, and engineering processes across multiple teams.

TCS

Principal Software Engineer

Huntsville, AL · On-site

$133K - $178K/yr

The selected Principal Software Engineer responsibilities will include the support of the GMD ... Basic Qualifications: * Bachelor's Degree in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering or ...

Humana

Principal Software Engineer

Louisville, KY · On-site +1

$129K - $173K/yr

The Principal Software Engineer provides strategic advice and guidance to functional team(s ... Translate complex software engineering issues into clear business, risk, funding, and execution ...

Humana

Principal Software Engineer

Dallas, TX · On-site +1

$133K - $179K/yr

The Principal Software Engineer provides strategic advice and guidance to functional team(s ... Translate complex software engineering issues into clear business, risk, funding, and execution ...

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Principal Software Engineering information

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$60.5K

$160.9K

$231K

How much do principal software engineering jobs pay per year?

As of Jul 12, 2026, the average yearly pay for principal software engineering in the United States is $160,936.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $135,000.00 and $181,000.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What engineer makes $500,000 a year?

Principal Software Engineers in large tech companies or specialized fields such as machine learning or cloud infrastructure can earn $500,000 or more annually, often including bonuses and stock options. Achieving this level typically requires extensive experience, advanced skills, and leadership responsibilities within high-growth organizations.

What is a Principal Software Engineer?

A Principal Software Engineer is a senior-level technical expert responsible for leading complex software projects, setting technical direction, and mentoring engineering teams. They often make high-impact architectural decisions, influence engineering best practices, and collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver scalable and reliable solutions. In addition to hands-on coding, they play a key role in strategic planning and innovation within an organization. This position typically requires extensive experience in software development and strong leadership skills.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a Principal Software Engineer, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Principal Software Engineer, you need advanced programming expertise, deep architectural knowledge, and extensive experience in software development, usually evidenced by a degree in computer science or a related field. Mastery of development frameworks, cloud platforms (like AWS or Azure), and familiarity with tools such as CI/CD pipelines and version control systems are essential, along with relevant certifications. Leadership, strategic thinking, and strong communication skills distinguish top performers in this role. These abilities are crucial for designing scalable solutions, mentoring teams, and driving technical vision that aligns with organizational goals.

Can you make $500,000 as a software engineer?

Principal software engineers at large tech companies or in specialized roles can earn $500,000 or more annually, often including base salary, bonuses, and stock options. Achieving this level typically requires extensive experience, advanced skills, and working in high-paying industries or companies. Compensation varies widely based on location, company size, and individual expertise.

How does a Principal Software Engineer typically balance hands-on coding with leadership responsibilities?

As a Principal Software Engineer, you'll often split your time between designing and reviewing complex technical solutions and guiding engineering teams through architectural decisions. While you may still write critical code, a significant portion of your role involves mentoring other engineers, influencing technical direction, and collaborating with cross-functional teams to ensure project alignment. This balance allows you to drive technical excellence while fostering team growth and supporting organizational goals. Effective time management and clear communication are key to succeeding in this multifaceted position.

How much do principal software engineers get paid?

Principal software engineers typically earn between $120,000 and $180,000 annually, with total compensation often including bonuses and stock options. Salaries vary based on experience, location, industry, and company size, with some earning over $200,000 in high-demand markets.

What engineers make $200,000 a year?

Principal Software Engineers and senior engineering roles in high-demand industries often earn $200,000 or more annually, especially with extensive experience, advanced skills in areas like cloud computing or machine learning, and often in large tech companies or specialized sectors. Compensation can also include bonuses, stock options, and other benefits, depending on the company and location.
More about Principal Software Engineering jobs
What job categories do people searching Principal Software Engineering jobs look for? The top searched job categories for Principal Software Engineering jobs are:
Principal Software Engineering jobs near you
Infographic showing various Principal Software Engineering job openings in the United States as of July 2026, with employment types broken down into 94% Full Time, 4% Part Time, and 2% Contract. Highlights an 87% Physical, 3% Hybrid, and 10% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $160,936 per year, or $77.4 per hour.
Principal Software Engineering - AI Frameworks

Principal Software Engineering - AI Frameworks

Microsoft

Redmond, WA • On-site

$188K - $304K/yr

Full-time

Re-posted 5 days ago

Microsoft rating

8.6

Company rating: 8.6 out of 10

Based on 130 frontline employees who took The Breakroom Quiz

57th of 209 rated software companies

Job description

Overview
Are you looking for opportunities to deliver innovations to hundreds of millions of users that impact their daily life? Do you want to be part of a fast-cycle, highly competitive, and hardcore AI/ML frameworks team with ambitious goals to advance AI technology?
The AI Frameworks team at Microsoft develops software that pushes the cutting edge of performance and experience in machine learning in production and research. We bridge the gap between the latest state-of-the-art AI models and hardware eco-systems. We build software to enable running AI models everywhere, from the world's fastest super cloud computers, to servers, desktops, mobile phones, IoT devices, and internet browsers. The framework we develop is powering AI experience for all major Microsoft products, such as Windows, Office, Microsoft 365, Bing, SQL Server, VSCode, Cognitive Service, Copilot+ PC, and many others.
As the Principal Software Engineer on our team, you would have the opportunity to work on:
  • ONNX: an open standard format for representing AI models, enabling AI developers to work on AI models with a variety of frameworks, tools, runtimes, and compilers.
  • ONNX Runtime: ONNX based cross-platform, high performance ML inferencing and training accelerator.
  • Foundry Local: an on-device AI inference solution offering performance, privacy, customization, and cost advantages. It integrates seamlessly into your existing workflows and applications through an intuitive CLI, SDK, and REST API.

We value our team members' happiness and encourage everyone to constantly learn new things and take risks. We collaborate closely and openly to accomplish big things together while having fun.
Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.
Responsibilities
As a Principal Software Engineer on the team the common tasks of the job would include, but not be limited to
  • Partnering with appropriate stakeholders to determine user requirements for one or more complex scenarios.
  • Providing technical leadership for the identification of dependencies and the development of design documents for a product, application, service, or platform.
  • Leading by example and mentoring others to produce extensible and maintainable code used across the company.
  • Leveraging deep subject-matter expertise of cross-product features with appropriate stakeholders (e.g., project managers) to lead multiple product's project plans, release plans, and work items.
  • Holding accountability as a Designated Responsible Individual (DRI), mentoring engineers across products/solutions, working on-call to monitor system/product/service for degradation, downtime, or interruptions.
  • Proactively seeking new knowledge and adapts to new trends, technical solutions, and patterns that will improve the availability, reliability, efficiency, observability, and performance of products while also driving consistency in monitoring and operations at scale and shares knowledge with other engineers.
  • Embodying our Culture and Values

Qualifications
Required/minimum qualifications
  • Bachelor's 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 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.

Additional or preferred qualifications
  • Bachelor's 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 equivalent experience.
  • Experience developing Inference software stack.
  • Experience working on systems performance optimization.
  • Working with Open-Source code.

Software Engineering IC5 - 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
Software Engineering IC6 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $165,600 - $296,400 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 $220,800 - $331,200 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

Sourced by ZipRecruiter

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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