Principal Software Engineering Manager at Microsoft
Redmond, WA
$142,800–$274,800from the description
Jul 26, 2026
Redmond, WA
Jul 29, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
An engineering manager role on a security-focused team building AI-driven threat detection and risk systems at high scale. The person hired will lead a junior engineering team, own delivery planning and KPIs, and also contribute hands-on to designing data pipelines, ML model integration, and an AI agent for vulnerability detection and attack simulation. The role sits at the intersection of people management and deep technical work in machine learning and security.
Senior level · 5+ years · Seattle, WA · Bachelor's required · Full-time
“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 1,450 people in the Seattle, WA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (computer and information systems managers). range 1,100–1,900
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 $219,401 (middle half $175,322–$306,147). 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 29, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (7)
The role explicitly requires 3+ years of people-management experience, making 11-3021 (Computer and Information Systems Managers) the primary SOC. However, the posting also describes substantial hands-on engineering work (designing pipelines, integrating ML models, building AI agents), so 15-1252 (Software Developers) is a genuine runner-up.
The coding-language requirement lists C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, and Python as interchangeable options ('including, but not limited to'); these are captured as a single skill with alternatives rather than separate entries.
A Master's degree in Computer Science is listed after the primary requirements block without explicit 'preferred' framing, but it follows the minimum Bachelor's gate and reads as a secondary/preferred credential — it is not treated as a hard degree requirement.
Experience with machine learning, deep learning, and GenAI appears after the primary requirements block and is not gated with firm language, so it is marked preferred.
The posting references a 'Software Engineering M5' level, which is an internal Microsoft job level corresponding roughly to a Senior individual-contributor band — however, the explicit people-management requirement makes the manager SOC the better fit.
The base pay range of USD $188,000–$304,200/year applies specifically to the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City metro; the general US range of $142,800–$274,800/year is reported in the compensation fields.
No specific work location is stated beyond the US pay-range references; CBSA is left as a best-guess placeholder (Seattle, WA — consistent with Microsoft's primary headquarters) and may need correction.
Read the full posting
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