The Principal Software Engineer - Performance will join the Artificial Intelligence Cloud Inference team at Microsoft, focusing on optimizing the performance of AI models, particularly OpenAI and other state-of-the-art LLMs. This hands-on technical role involves working across the AI software stack, including benchmarking and debugging performance on various hardware platforms. The engineer will collaborate with internal and external partners to drive improvements and efficiencies in AI model deployment. A strong emphasis is placed on problem-solving and innovation within a collaborative and inclusive culture.

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 6+ years of technical engineering experience with coding in languages including C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python.
• Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements.
• Master's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 12+ years of technical engineering experience OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 15+ years of technical engineering experience.
• 4+ years of 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.