The Principal Software Engineer - Performance role at Microsoft involves working on the Artificial Intelligence Cloud Inference team, which focuses on optimizing AI models for performance across various platforms. This position requires collaboration with hardware teams and partners to enhance the inference performance of state-of-the-art LLMs. The engineer will engage in benchmarking, debugging, and optimizing performance at multiple levels of the AI software stack. A hands-on technical approach is essential for solving complex problems and driving efficiencies in AI model deployment.

• 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.
• Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements.
• Master's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 12+ years technical engineering experience with coding OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 15+ years technical engineering experience with coding OR equivalent experience.
• 4+ years’ practical experience working on high performance applications and performance debug and optimization on CPUs/GPUs.
• Experience in end-to-end performance analysis and optimization of state of the art LLMs and HPC applications.

• Identify and drive improvements to end-to-end inference performance of OpenAI and other state of the art LLMs.
• Measure and benchmark performance on Nvidia/AMD GPUs and first party Microsoft silicon.
• Optimize and monitor performance of LLMs and build software tooling to enable insights into performance opportunities.
• Enable fast time to market of LLMs/models and their deployments at scale by building software tools.
• Design, implement, and test functions or components for AI/DNN/LLM frameworks and tools.

• Employees at Microsoft are often offered comprehensive, “world-class” benefits—including health and mental-wellness programs, competitive pay with bonuses and stock awards, and retirement/savings options. Time-off and flexibility are common, with generous vacation and holidays, parental and caregiver leave, and flexible work schedules, alongside learning support, employee resource groups, product discounts, and matching-gifts/volunteering programs. Specific benefits can vary by region.