The Principal Software Engineer will be a key technical leader in the AI Engineering Excellence team at Microsoft, focusing on modernizing the software development lifecycle through agent-driven workflows. This role involves defining the architecture and engineering approach for AI-native engineering workflows, while also being hands-on in building prototypes and production systems. The team aims to enhance developer productivity and operational efficiency by leveraging AI and automation. The position requires a blend of technical expertise, leadership, and the ability to drive measurable impact across the organization.

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 6+ years of technical engineering experience coding in languages including C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python OR equivalent experience.
• Proven success leading the architecture and delivery of complex production systems or developer platforms across multiple teams and technical domains.
• Hands-on experience using current generative AI models, coding agents, and engineering platforms to build production software.
• Experience improving engineering execution at organizational scale through developer workflows, engineering systems, operating practices, or developer experience.
• Deep technical expertise in one or more areas such as cloud platforms, distributed systems, developer tooling, identity and security, observability, CI/CD, testing infrastructure, or safe deployment.

• Define the technical vision, architecture, and engineering roadmap for major AI-native engineering workflows and platform capabilities.
• Analyze end-to-end software-development workflows and identify where agents, automation, and shared engineering capabilities can create value.
• Design, prototype, and build production-grade agent-driven workflows, services, and tools.
• Establish clear interfaces, engineering standards, design documents, and reusable implementation patterns.
• Evaluate emerging AI development tools, models, and platforms in representative production scenarios.
• Lead technical incubation from testable hypothesis to working capability and validate it with real engineering teams.
• Identify, incubate, and evolve common foundations and platform capabilities that improve engineering workflows.
• Own production outcomes for the capabilities you lead, including operational readiness, observability, security, and reliability.
• Influence technical direction across engineering organizations and align senior stakeholders through clear technical reasoning.
• Model AI-native engineering in your own work and mentor engineers to raise the quality bar for design and implementation.

• 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.