Principal Architect
Microsoft
Now more than ever, we live in an age where AI and Cloud Services are empowering people around the world to achieve more. Behind these innovative services exists a critical infrastructure that is bringing them to life. The Search & AI Platform is building that foundation which makes Bing and Copilot possible on a global scale. Our product is impacting individual's lives in scenarios such as Web Search, AI chat, AI grounding, and local deal finding.
As a Principal Architect on the Search & AI Platform team you will be collaborating in building the next generation of storage and computation fabric using in-house and open-source technologies. You will be hands-on in a massively scaled and distributed system. Our developers design, implement, and rollout features with a data-driven and test-driven methodology. Furthermore, you will have the opportunity to work with cutting-edge cloud and machine learning technologies. As part of your work, you will participate in agile scrum, collaborate with people across a variety of domain expertise, and have opportunities to explore and contribute to many areas.
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.
Starting January 26, 2026, Microsoft AI (MAI) employees who live within a 50-mile commute of a designated Microsoft office in the U.S. or 25-mile commute of a non-U.S., country-specific location are expected to work from the office at least four days per week. This expectation is subject to local law and may vary by jurisdiction.
Responsibilities
- Partners with engineering, product, and developer stakeholders to deeply understand user workflows, pain points, and requirements across diverse scenarios, translating them into a cohesive and intuitive platform user experience.
- Leads end-to-end architectural design by identifying system and cross-team dependencies, defining design principles and technical direction, and producing high‑quality design documents that guide the evolution of the platform, tooling, and services.
- Designs and builds foundational platform components, frameworks, and tooling—creating reusable patterns, improving reliability and performance, and continuously optimizing for developer efficiency, maintainability, and ROI at enterprise scale.
- Serves as the authoritative subject-matter expert on internal platform features and capabilities, partnering with program managers and engineering leads to drive roadmap planning, release strategies, and workstream execution across the platform organization.
- Acts as a senior DRI in a DevOps operating model, shaping operational playbooks, mentoring engineers on operational best practices, and leading incident response. Monitors platform health, drives mitigation during service degradation, and leads restoration efforts for complex issues across clusters and scale units.
- Continuously researches and evaluates emerging technologies, patterns, and industry best practices, applying them to improve the platform’s availability, reliability, security, observability, operational consistency, and developer experience. Drives standards that ensure scalable, consistent operations across thousands of workloads and tenants.
Qualifications
Required Qualifications:
- 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.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Master's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 12+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 15+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
- equivalent experience.
Software Engineering IC6 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $163,000 - $296,400 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 $220,800 - $331,200 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
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.