Principal Software Engineer at Microsoft
Mountain View, CA
—
Aug 17, 2026
Mountain View, CA
Sep 25, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
This role focuses on building software tools to validate and explore optimization technologies for large language models, working alongside ML researchers and systems engineers. Day-to-day work involves model scripting, kernel-level development, and performance evaluation of LLMs at various scales. It suits an experienced engineer with a background in deep learning systems and low-level programming.
Senior level · 6+ years · Bachelor's required
“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
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $138,970 (middle half $107,524–$175,762).
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Aug 20, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (4)
The minimum experience gate is 6+ years with a Bachelor's degree, but the posting also lists elevated tiers (8+ years with a Master's, or 12+ years with a Bachelor's) described as 'specialized security screenings' requirements — the relationship between these tiers is ambiguous. The base 6-year gate is used as the overall years minimum.
The mention of 'specialized security screenings' is unusual phrasing and may imply some form of background or security check, but no specific US clearance level is named or hard-gated, so clearance is set to None.
Python, C, C++, C#, Java, and JavaScript are listed together as interchangeable coding language options in the requirements block. Python is used as the primary name with the others as alternatives; C++ and CUDA are also called out specifically in the job duties for model scripting and kernel development.
CUDA, LLMs, Deep Neural Networks, and ML system optimization experience appear in the body of the posting but are framed as 'experience in' rather than hard gates in a formal requirements section — treated as preferred.
Read the full posting
The employer publishes the full description on their own site — read it there ↗. Or sign in to read it here — it's free, and it also lets you track this application.