Microsoft
Principal Software Engineer
$143K–$304K
Redmond, WA · On-site · Principal · Full-time · Posted Oct 27, 2026
- Experience
- 6+ years technical engineering experience; preferred alternatives: 8+ years with a Master's Degree or 12+ years with a Bachelor's Degree, or equivalent experience.
- Education
- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field, or equivalent experience.
- Visa sponsorship
- The posting states that the role requires Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening, including the Microsoft Cloud Background Check. It does not state a visa policy.
About the job
Leads the design, modernization, and operation of secure, reliable, cost-efficient telemetry pipelines and cloud-scale observability systems for Azure Monitor.
What you'll do
- Own and deliver cloud-scale telemetry platforms, data pipelines, and infrastructure, from design through production and operational maturity.
- Set technical direction across teams and establish engineering practices for secure, resilient, observable distributed systems.
- Partner across engineering and business teams to resolve complex production issues and drive cross-team initiatives.
What they ask for
- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 6+ years technical engineering experience coding in one or more listed languages, OR equivalent experience.
- Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements, including passing the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.
Nice to have
- Master's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience, or Bachelor's Degree in the same field AND 12+ years, or equivalent experience.
- Experience with Rust; observability systems, telemetry pipelines, monitoring platforms, Open Telemetry, Kubernetes, containers, cloud platforms, or large-scale data processing systems.
Pay
USD $142,800 - $274,800 per year (base salary); USD $188,000 - $304,200 per year (base salary)
Tools
C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Python, Rust, Kubernetes
AI focus
Contributes to a data platform designed for the age of AI; the role focuses on telemetry pipelines and observability, with no specific AI development duties stated.
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative