The Principal Software Engineer-Systems and Infrastructure role at Microsoft focuses on providing technical leadership for complex AI infrastructure solutions. The AI Infrastructure Engineering Systems team builds the cloud platform and engineering infrastructure that supports AI services at scale. This position involves overseeing system architecture, guiding large-scale initiatives, and establishing engineering standards. The role also emphasizes collaboration across teams to improve the performance and reliability of AI workloads.

• 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.
• 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 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 15+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python.
• Experience providing architecture and technical leadership for multiple large-scale distributed systems, databases, analytics systems, or platform product areas.
• Experience aligning technical decisions with business outcomes and influencing cross-functional teams and senior technical leadership.

• Oversee and own the architecture of deeply complex and ambiguous products and solutions.
• Drive innovation and delivery across multiple large-scale initiatives, guiding teams through architecture, design, implementation, validation, deployment, and operationalization.
• Design platform-first products, services, tools, and extensible code that can be reused across the organization.
• Establish and champion company-wide coding, testing, architecture, and operational standards.
• Act as a technical authority for cross-product debugging, verification, telemetry, incident learning, repair actions, and automation.
• Build alignment across teams, customers, and technical leadership while negotiating dependencies and trade-offs.
• Influence open-source projects and industry practices, and evaluate emerging technologies.
• Collaborate across infrastructure and AI teams to improve the performance, efficiency, and reliability of large-scale AI workloads.
• Drive complex, ambiguous infrastructure initiatives from problem discovery through architecture, implementation, and production.

• 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.