principal software engineering Principal Engineer tech_leadership · Posted Mar 24, 2026
$163,000 – $296,400
USD per year

About this role

Microsoft is hiring a principal-level Principal Engineer in the software engineering function based in Redmond, WA. The posting calls out experience with Distributed Systems, Performance Optimization, Azure, Observability. Compensation is listed at $163,000–$296,400 per year.

Role
Principal Engineer
Function
software engineering
Level
principal
Track
Tech leadership
Employment
Full-time
Location
Redmond, WA
Department
Product Management
Posted
Mar 24, 2026

More roles at Microsoft

Senior Software Engineer - Backend
Barcelona, Spain · senior
JavaScript Java C
Data Center Technicians Intern
Amsterdam, Netherlands · intern
Security Azure Cloud Computing
Consultant, AI Business Solutions
Hyderabad, India · mid
Azure LLMs Agile
Principal Software Engineer - ISE
Sydney, Australia · principal
Python JavaScript Java
Cloud Solution Architect - Cloud & AI Data
Perth, Australia · mid
Azure Cloud Computing SQL
All Microsoft jobs →

Job description

from Microsoft careers
Overview

We are seeking a Principal Product Manager/Architect to define and guide the technical architecture of Microsoft Foundry as the most reliable, scalable, and efficient AI inferencing platform in the industry. This role sits at the intersection of platform architecture, largescale GPU fleet management, and strategic customer engagement, with end-to-end accountability for the product direction that shape reliability, efficiency, and customer trust at global scale. 

This leader will partner with Engineering and Product Management leaders to drive reliability, efficiency and strategic customer engagement while remaining deeply engaged in nearterm execution. The role partners closely with engineering, product, and customer teams across CoreAI, Azure, and 1P products to ensure Foundry delivers industryleading reliability, worldclass GPU efficiency, and differentiated value for Microsoft’s most strategic AI customers. 



Responsibilities

1. Product Reliability 

Own the product direction for Microsoft Foundry inference, with a primary mandate to make the platform the most reliable enterprise inferencing service available. This includes defining architectural standards for global serving, multi-region resiliency, automated failover, and platform-managed disaster recovery, evolving the system from customer-managed resilience to platform-managed global reliability.  

This is an excerpt. Read the full job description on Microsoft careers →
All software engineering jobs software engineering in Redmond, WA Jobs in Redmond, WA software engineering salaries software engineering career path
All Microsoft Jobs Browse software engineering roles principal positions