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Principal Software Engineer

Microsoft

Microsoft

Software Engineering
USD 139,900-274,800 / year + Equity
Posted on Jul 12, 2025

Principal Software Engineer

Mountain View, California, United States

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Date posted
Jul 11, 2025
Job number
1838971
Work site
Up to 50% work from home
Travel
0-25 %
Role type
Individual Contributor
Profession
Software Engineering
Discipline
Software Engineering
Employment type
Full-Time

Overview

We’re living in an era of more possibilities, more innovation, and more openness. As Microsoft continues to push the boundaries of AI, we are on the lookout for passionate individuals to work with us on some of the most interesting and challenging AI problems. Our vision is bold and broad -- to build a truly open architecture v1 platform -- to enable and reimagine how users can summon bespoke AI agents to drive real meaningful business outcomes.

We are looking for a Principal Software Engineer to join our team.

This role involves crafting user-facing features powered by Generative AI while taking full ownership of their development from inception to delivery, ensuring exceptional quality and seamless implementation. You’ll be working closely with some of the world’s most recognizable brands, helping them catapult into the AI transformation era.

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.

Qualifications

Required qualifications:

  • Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 6+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
    • OR equivalent experience.
  • Competence with DevOps practices, including CI/CD pipelines, containerization, and infrastructure-as-code.
  • Solid understanding and successful demonstration of system security, scalability, reliability, and maintainability.
  • Practical Experience with AI/LLMs: Experience designing and implementing ML/LLM-based solutions in production environments.
  • Experience leveraging generative AI technologies to develop innovative and user-focused product features.

Other Requirements

Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role. These requirements include but are not limited to the followingspecialized security screenings:

  • This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.

Preferred qualifications:

  • Master's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 6+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python OR equivalent experience.
  • Capable of optimizing, prompting and finetuning AI-based solutions for performance, accuracy, and scalability.
  • Experience coaching and growing engineers within the team.

Software Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $139,900 - $274,800 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 $188,000 - $304,200 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

Microsoft will accept applications and processes offers for these roles on an ongoing basis.

#BICJobs

Responsibilities

This role involves crafting user-facing features powered by Generative AI while taking full ownership of their development from inception to delivery, ensuring exceptional quality and seamless implementation. You’ll be working closely with some of the world’s most recognizable brands, helping them catapult into the AI transformation era.

Ideal candidates will have a balanced combination of theoretical AI knowledge and practical software development experience, enabling them to design, develop, and deploy sophisticated software systems at scale, with an experimentation and iterative mindset. Candidates for this role should also demonstrate customer passion, a bias for action, and an ability to work effectively across organizational boundaries.

Come and build the next generation of AI agents!


Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.
Industry leading healthcare
Educational resources
Discounts on products and services
Savings and investments
Maternity and paternity leave
Generous time away
Giving programs
Opportunities to network and connect

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 and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.