Principal Software Engineer Jobs in Washington
Principal Software Engineer jobs in Washington are among the most active in the nation, with concentrated demand in cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, and developer tooling across the Seattle metro, Bellevue, and Redmond. Major employers with a lasting footprint in the state include Microsoft, Amazon, and Boeing, each running large engineering organizations that regularly staff at the principal level. Specialties in platform engineering, machine learning infrastructure, and large-scale backend systems see the most consistent openings. Find a role that fits below and apply directly.
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Showing 5 of 80+ Principal Software Engineer jobs
We’re not just training and applying models — we’re building intelligent systems that run them. This is your chance to engineer the critical infrastructure, platforms, and features that power the Microsoft Copilot — with a direct impact on how the world works. Recent launches like Analyst Agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot | Microsoft Community Hub showcase the breadth and depth of the impact you’ll help drive across the stack.
The Microsoft Turing team is an innovative engineering and research team working on state-of-the-art deep learning models to power end user experiences across the company. Software Engineers and Applied Scientists in the Turing team work together to push the boundaries of large-scale deep learning models on the Microsoft 365 Core world-class distributed training infrastructure.
As a Principal Software Engineer in the Turing team, you will leverage your skills and experience to help build the platform that powers enterprise Microsoft’s Copilots. You will work closely with applied scientists and engineers on building and designing both backend platform capabilities as well as core copilot scenarios aimed at delighting our customers. You will be responsible for building scalable, performant, and cutting-edge features. This involves defining the architecture, implementation plan, ensuring everything is tested and robust, and improving processes to contribute to our best practices.
We’re solving some of the most technically demanding problems in distributed systems, language models, and production-scale AI. Whether you're passionate about finding innovative uses to apply AI, systems design, intelligent orchestration and reasoning systems, or building resilient services — this is the team where engineers thrive.
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
Design
Leads design discussions: Facilitates design meetings, creates design documents, and ensures alignment with project goals.
Ensures system architecture: Designs system architecture that meets security, compliance, and scalability requirements.
Engineering Excellence
Enhances and reuses developer tools: Develops and maintains tools that support code creation, testing, and deployment.
Stays current with new trends: Continuously learns and adapts to new technologies and methodologies to improve product performance.
Implementation
Mentors others: Guides team members to produce extensible and maintainable code through code reviews and pair programming.
Leads implementation and deployment: Oversees the implementation and deployment of solutions, ensuring they meet quality standards.
Breaks down project vision: Translates project vision into actionable milestones and guides the team in project estimation and planning.
Reliability and Supportability
Acts as a Designated Responsible Individual (DRI): Monitors systems, responds to incidents, and restores services to ensure reliability.
Leads efforts to reduce incident volume: Analyzes incident patterns and implements broad resolutions to minimize future incidents.
Understand User Requirements
Partners with stakeholders: Collaborates with stakeholders to gather and understand user requirements and expectations.
Incorporates continuous feedback: Uses feedback from users and stakeholders to iteratively improve designs and solutions.
Qualifications
Required 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.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, or a related field with 8+ years of relevant industry experience, or a bachelor’s degree with 10+ years of relevant industry experience.
- Demonstrated experience designing and shipping AI-powered products or platforms, including experience with large language models, agentic systems, retrieval, or related technologies.
- Proven software engineering judgment, with the ability to translate emerging AI capabilities into reliable, maintainable, and scalable product experiences.
- Experience architecting and operating large-scale cloud or distributed systems, with a focus on reliability, performance, security, observability, and operational excellence.
- Proven ability to shape technical strategy, influence architectural decisions across organizational boundaries, mentor engineers, and deliver measurable customer outcomes in fast-moving and ambiguous environments.
#CAP #Copilot #msturing
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
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.
We’re not just training and applying models — we’re building intelligent systems that run them. This is your chance to engineer the critical infrastructure, platforms, and features that power the Microsoft Copilot — with a direct impact on how the world works. Recent launches like Analyst Agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot | Microsoft Community Hub showcase the breadth and depth of the impact you’ll help drive across the stack.
The Microsoft Turing team is an innovative engineering and research team working on state-of-the-art deep learning models to power end user experiences across the company. Software Engineers and Applied Scientists in the Turing team work together to push the boundaries of large-scale deep learning models on the Microsoft 365 Core world-class distributed training infrastructure.
As a Principal Software Engineer in the Turing team, you will leverage your skills and experience to help build the platform that powers enterprise Microsoft’s Copilots. You will work closely with applied scientists and engineers on building and designing both backend platform capabilities as well as core copilot scenarios aimed at delighting our customers. You will be responsible for building scalable, performant, and cutting-edge features. This involves defining the architecture, implementation plan, ensuring everything is tested and robust, and improving processes to contribute to our best practices.
We’re solving some of the most technically demanding problems in distributed systems, language models, and production-scale AI. Whether you're passionate about finding innovative uses to apply AI, systems design, intelligent orchestration and reasoning systems, or building resilient services — this is the team where engineers thrive.
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
Design
Leads design discussions: Facilitates design meetings, creates design documents, and ensures alignment with project goals.
Ensures system architecture: Designs system architecture that meets security, compliance, and scalability requirements.
Engineering Excellence
Enhances and reuses developer tools: Develops and maintains tools that support code creation, testing, and deployment.
Stays current with new trends: Continuously learns and adapts to new technologies and methodologies to improve product performance.
Implementation
Mentors others: Guides team members to produce extensible and maintainable code through code reviews and pair programming.
Leads implementation and deployment: Oversees the implementation and deployment of solutions, ensuring they meet quality standards.
Breaks down project vision: Translates project vision into actionable milestones and guides the team in project estimation and planning.
Reliability and Supportability
Acts as a Designated Responsible Individual (DRI): Monitors systems, responds to incidents, and restores services to ensure reliability.
Leads efforts to reduce incident volume: Analyzes incident patterns and implements broad resolutions to minimize future incidents.
Understand User Requirements
Partners with stakeholders: Collaborates with stakeholders to gather and understand user requirements and expectations.
Incorporates continuous feedback: Uses feedback from users and stakeholders to iteratively improve designs and solutions.
Qualifications
Required 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.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, or a related field with 8+ years of relevant industry experience, or a bachelor’s degree with 10+ years of relevant industry experience.
- Demonstrated experience designing and shipping AI-powered products or platforms, including experience with large language models, agentic systems, retrieval, or related technologies.
- Proven software engineering judgment, with the ability to translate emerging AI capabilities into reliable, maintainable, and scalable product experiences.
- Experience architecting and operating large-scale cloud or distributed systems, with a focus on reliability, performance, security, observability, and operational excellence.
- Proven ability to shape technical strategy, influence architectural decisions across organizational boundaries, mentor engineers, and deliver measurable customer outcomes in fast-moving and ambiguous environments.
#CAP #Copilot #msturing
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
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.
See All 80 Principal Software Engineer Jobs in Washington
Find roles in Washington that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
Find JobsPrincipal Software Engineer Jobs by City in Washington
Where Washington roles are concentrated, by current openings.
Principal Software Engineer Job Market in Washington
A snapshot from current Washington openings, updated as new roles post.
Who's Hiring
- Microsoft30
- Oracle9
- Blue Origin6
- TSMC3
- JPMorganChase3
Top Industries Hiring
- Technology & Software16
- Retail2
- Manufacturing2
- Science & Research1
- Aerospace & Defense1
What Washington Employers Look For
The qualifications that appear most often in principal software engineer jobs across Washington.
- Bachelor's or master's degree in computer science, software engineering, or a related technical field
- Ten or more years of software engineering experience with at least three in a technical leadership role
- Demonstrated ownership of system architecture decisions across large-scale distributed or cloud-based systems
- Proficiency in one or more of Python, Java, Go, or C++ with experience designing APIs and microservices
- Experience mentoring senior engineers and driving engineering standards across multiple teams or product areas
- Strong cross-functional collaboration skills working with product management, infrastructure, and data engineering teams
Principal Software Engineer Jobs in Washington: Frequently Asked Questions
How do you become a principal software engineer in Washington?
Reaching the principal level in Washington follows an experience-driven path rather than a state licensing requirement, as software engineering carries no Washington state license or registration. Most principal engineers arrive after a decade or more of progressive engineering roles, culminating in demonstrated ownership of large-scale architecture decisions. Washington employers, particularly those in the Seattle cloud and enterprise software ecosystem, typically expect candidates to show impact across multiple teams and products, not just individual technical output.
How much do principal software engineers make in Washington?
Principal software engineers in Washington earn a median of about $166,540 a year, based on May 2025 Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data, ranging from around $96,810 for the lowest 10% to over $255,350 for the top 10%. Pay rises with experience, specialty, and employer.
Which companies hire principal software engineers in Washington?
Employers hiring principal software engineers in Washington right now include Microsoft, Oracle, and Blue Origin, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of September 2026. Washington's concentration of global technology headquarters means principal-level openings appear consistently year-round rather than clustering around a single hiring season.
Which Washington cities have the most principal software engineer jobs?
Seattle, Redmond, and Bellevue account for the largest share of principal software engineer openings in Washington. Seattle and Bellevue dominate because Microsoft, Amazon, and a dense cluster of mid-sized cloud and SaaS companies are headquartered or have major engineering campuses there, while Redmond's long-standing role as Microsoft's global headquarters sustains a steady volume of senior and principal engineering roles independent of broader hiring cycles.
Are there remote principal software engineer jobs in Washington?
Yes, and more than most fields. About 69% of principal software engineer openings tied to Washington are remote or hybrid as of September 2026, reflecting how thoroughly the role centers on design, code review, and cross-team coordination rather than physical presence. Architecture and staff-level platform roles tend to have the highest remote availability, while roles tied to hardware, embedded systems, or classified government contracts more often require on-site work.
How can I get hired as a principal software engineer in Washington with little or no experience?
The most realistic path is entering through an associate or software development engineer role at a Washington employer and building toward the principal level over time. Amazon, Microsoft, and Boeing all run structured new-graduate and university hiring programs that place candidates into individual contributor pipelines. Moving from a senior software engineer role into technical lead or staff engineer positions at mid-sized Seattle-area product companies is a common lateral step that shortens the path. A strong portfolio of open-source contributions or shipped products carrying clear architectural decision records strengthens any Washington application.
Where can I find and apply to principal software engineer jobs in Washington?
You can find and apply to principal software engineer jobs in Washington on Migrate Mate, which lists current Washington openings updated regularly. Search the listings, find roles that fit your background and target location, and apply directly to the ones that match.
See All 80 Principal Software Engineer Jobs in Washington
Find roles in Washington that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
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