Senior Software Engineer at Microsoft Corporation
Redmond, WA
$119,800–$234,700from the description
Jul 14, 2026
Redmond, WA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
This role sits within a team building remote desktop technology, focused on low-latency, high-fidelity streaming across varied network conditions. Day-to-day work involves improving the RDP protocol, building media pipelines using modern video codecs, and ensuring cross-platform compatibility between Windows clients, virtualized environments, and cloud-hosted desktops. It suits engineers with a background in graphics, video compression, or desktop remoting.
Mid level · 4+ years · Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA · Full-time
Advertised as Senior, but the requirements read as Mid.
“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 15,200 people in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 11,400–19,700
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 (5)
The minimum required qualification is 4+ years of engineering experience with coding in C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python (or equivalent experience) — no specific language is individually hard-gated. C/C++ is listed first and is the focus of the preferred qualifications, but the required section explicitly accepts any of the listed languages as alternatives.
The role is tagged as 'IC4' in Microsoft's internal leveling system, which corresponds to Senior Software Engineer. However, the minimum qualification threshold (4+ years) aligns more closely with a Mid-level engineer; the preferred qualifications (8+ years) describe a Senior. The seniority band is set to Mid based on the hard minimum gate.
The posting does not specify a single work location beyond 'across the U.S.' with a San Francisco Bay Area / NYC pay premium callout. Microsoft's Windows Cloud Experiences team is headquartered in Redmond, WA; the Seattle CBSA is used as the best-fit metro.
The Microsoft Cloud Background Check is a standard employment screening requirement, not a US government security clearance — clearance is set to None.
All preferred qualifications (Windows graphics, desktop remoting/video codecs, DirectX, Windows Internals, Azure) appear under the 'Preferred Qualifications' heading and are not hard gates.
Read the full posting
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