Principal Solution Engineer - Software Development & Platform
Software Engineering
United States · Texas, USA · North Carolina, USA · Georgia, USA · Charlotte, NC, USA · North Dakota, USA · Fargo, ND, USA · Dallas, TX, USA · Atlanta, GA, USA · 5, NC, USA
USD 130,900-251,900 / year
The Software Development & Platform (SDP) team works with Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), AI/cloud-native companies, and software providers to accelerate growth through Microsoft Azure, AI, and the Microsoft Cloud ecosystem. Our mission is to help software companies build, modernize, deploy, scale, and monetize applications on Azure while enabling them to deliver innovative solutions to their own customers.
As a Solution Engineer, you will serve as a trusted technical advisor to software companies throughout their cloud and AI journey. You will work directly with engineering leaders, architects, product teams, and technical decision-makers to design cloud-native applications, accelerate AI innovation, modernize architectures, and optimize workloads on Azure. You will help customers build differentiated solutions on Microsoft's platform while enabling go-to-market success through commercial marketplace, Azure consumption growth, and scalable customer support models.
This role combines deep technical expertise with business impact, helping customers transform their applications into secure, scalable, AI-powered solutions that create value for both their business and their end customers.
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
Customer & Technical Leadership
Build trusted relationships with Chief Technology Officers (CTOs), engineering leaders, architects, and technical decision-makers at Independent Software Vendor (ISV) and software development companies.
Act as a technical advisor throughout the customer lifecycle, helping customers architect, build, deploy, and operate solutions on Azure.
Serve as the Voice of the Customer (VoC) by sharing technical insights, product feedback, and blockers with Microsoft engineering and product teams.
Application Development & Modernization
Help customers design and develop cloud-native applications leveraging Azure services, platform capabilities, and AI technologies.
Technical Solutions
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
Azure App Service
Azure Container Apps
Azure API Management
Azure Functions
Lead architectural design sessions and technical workshops focused on application modernization, microservices, containers, Kubernetes, APIs, data platforms, and AI-enabled applications.
Guide customers in adopting Azure Well-Architected Framework and Cloud Adoption Framework best practices to create secure, scalable, resilient, and cost-efficient solutions.
Support customers in modernizing legacy applications and transitioning workloads to cloud-native architectures.
AI & Platform Innovation
Help customers build and deploy AI-powered applications using Azure AI services, Azure OpenAI, data platforms, and intelligent application patterns.
Technical Solutions
Azure AI Foundry
Azure OpenAI Service
Azure AI Search
Azure Machine Learning
GitHub Copilot Enterprise
Drive conversations around platform engineering, developer productivity, DevOps, GitHub, automation, observability, and AI-powered software development.
Identify opportunities where Azure and AI can accelerate customer innovation and create competitive differentiation.
Customer Success & Growth
Enable customers to successfully launch, scale, and support applications running on Azure.
Remove technical blockers and accelerate projects from design through production deployment.
Help customers optimize application performance, reliability, security, and operational excellence.
Contribute to customer success plans and technical roadmaps that drive Azure adoption and business outcomes.
Ecosystem & Marketplace Enablement
Enable software companies to publish, distribute, and monetize their solutions through the Microsoft Commercial Marketplace.
Help customers align technical architecture with marketplace and go-to-market requirements.
Support ISVs in delivering successful customer experience and scalable support operations for solutions built on Azure.
Innovation & Continuous Learning
Maintain expertise across Azure, AI, application development, cloud-native technologies, and emerging platform capabilities.
Share technical best practices, reusable intellectual property, and customer success patterns across the team.
Continuously adapt skills to evolving customer needs and technology trends.
Qualifications
Required/minimum qualifications
- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering or related field AND 6+ years technical pre-sales or technical consulting experience OR equivalent experience.
- 6+ years of experience in application development, cloud architecture, software engineering, solution engineering, technical consulting, or related fields.
- 5+ years of customer-facing experience working directly with software development organizations, engineering teams, or technical decision-makers.
- Experience designing, building, or supporting applications on Microsoft Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
- Experience with modern software development practices including APIs, microservices, containers, Kubernetes, CI/CD, DevOps, cloud-native architectures, and AI application development.
- Effective problem-solving, architectural design, and technical consulting skills with the ability to communicate effectively with both executive and technical audiences.
- Experience working with ISVs, SaaS providers, or software companies, or AI-first/cloud-native organizations.
- Experience with Azure AI Services, Azure OpenAI, GitHub, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), and platform engineering practices.
- Experience supporting commercial software products and customer-facing applications at scale.
- Knowledge of Microsoft Commercial Marketplace and software monetization models.
- Azure certifications and/or software development certifications.
- Experience helping customers bring applications from concept to production deployment.
Digital Solution Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $130,900 - $251,900 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 $165,600 - $272,300 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, read more about requesting accommodations.