Microsoft
Principal Software Engineer - CTJ - TS/SCI
$143K–$304K
Reston, VA +3 · On-site · Principal · Full-time · Posted Oct 2, 2026
- Location
- Reston, VA
Washington, DC
Redmond, WA
Atlanta, GA - Experience
- 6+ years required. Preferred alternatives: 8+ years with a Master's Degree, or 12+ years with a Bachelor's Degree; equivalent experience accepted.
- Education
- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field, or equivalent experience.
About the job
Leads customer-facing software engineering work to design and deliver cloud-based solutions, reusable patterns, and open-source assets for strategic customers.
What you'll do
- Determine user requirements, identify dependencies, and lead design documentation for products, applications, services, or platforms.
- Mentor engineers and guide development of extensible, maintainable code and cross-team project and release plans.
- Serve as a Designated Responsible Individual, including on-call monitoring and improving system availability, reliability, efficiency, observability, and performance.
What they ask for
- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field, or equivalent experience.
- 6+ years technical engineering experience coding in languages including C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python.
- Active TS/SCI clearance; willingness and eligibility to upgrade to TS/SCI (with polygraph), and ability to maintain it.
- U.S. citizenship verification and ability to meet required security screenings, including the Microsoft Cloud background check.
Nice to have
- Master's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field and 8+ years of technical engineering experience; or Bachelor's Degree and 12+ years, or equivalent experience.
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
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative