Principal Security Engineer at Microsoft Corporation
Redmond, WA
$142,800–$274,800from the description
Jul 10, 2026
Redmond, WA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A principal-level security engineering role focused on firmware development for hardware security components — including secure boot flows, cryptographic services, key management, and attestation — within Microsoft's cloud infrastructure hardware team. The work spans the full product lifecycle, from silicon architecture and pre-silicon environments through manufacturing and large-scale deployment. Best suited to engineers with deep embedded firmware and hardware security experience, particularly in low-level languages and RTOS environments.
Senior level · 6+ years · Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA · Full-time
Advertised as Principal, but the requirements read as Senior.
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 7,800 people in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 5,800–10,100
Applicant volume Heavy — This req sits in a large pool with little in its requirements to thin it, and auto-apply tools fire at everything in the occupation. Applying early and leading with the rare skills below is what gets read.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $170,959 (middle half $135,720–$216,519). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (8)
The role is titled 'Principal Security Engineer' and internally leveled as 'Software Engineering IC5' (Microsoft's IC5 = Principal), but the minimum hard requirements — a Bachelor's (or equivalent) plus 6+ years of experience — support a Senior-level assessment. The 10+ years and deeper technical specifics (Rust, C/C++, secure boot, HSM, RTOS, PCIe/NVMe/I2C/SPI) all appear under Preferred Qualifications, so they are marked preferred.
The only hard-gated coding languages are C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python (listed in the minimum qualifications with 'including, but not limited to'). Because these are offered as interchangeable options, C is listed as the primary with the others as alternatives.
Rust, C, and C++ are called out separately under Preferred Qualifications as 'Proven and demonstrable skill in Rust, C, C++' — these are preferred, not required gates.
The Microsoft Cloud Background Check is a background screening requirement, not a US government security clearance, so the clearance requirement is set to None.
The degree requirement is None because the JD explicitly accepts 'equivalent experience' in lieu of a Bachelor's degree.
A higher pay range applies for San Francisco Bay Area and New York City metro locations ($188,000–$304,200/year); the figures captured here are the standard US-wide range.
The alt SOC 15-1212 (Information Security Analysts) is noted as a runner-up given the heavy security focus, but the primary day-to-day work is firmware/embedded software development, making 15-1252 the better fit.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): ROM development.
Read the full posting
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