Principal Software Engineer

Overview

We are looking to welcome a Principal Software Engineer to a group of innovative, energetic and diverse engineers on the CoPilot Runtime Platform team, which is the engineering organization responsible for the foundational platform powering Microsoft 365 Copilot. We build the runtime, orchestration, data access, grounding, storage, observability, reliability, and developer infrastructure that enables AI-powered experiences across Microsoft 365.

As part of the team, you will work on large-scale distributed systems, AI platform architecture, enterprise search and grounding technologies, developer frameworks, platform extensibility, reliability engineering, and next-generation Copilot experiences. Our engineers partner across Microsoft to deliver secure, scalable, and highly available AI services that serve millions of users worldwide.

This role offers the opportunity to influence the future architecture of Microsoft 365 Copilot while solving challenging problems at the intersection of distributed systems, AI, search, data platforms, and cloud-scale services.

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.

Responsibilities

Partner with internal and external stakeholders to understand and incorporate user requirements and feedback into solutions.

Lead architectural discussions and design of complex products, including evaluation of multiple design options, creating proposals, making design decisions, and coaching less experienced team members. Establish and promote best coding and security practices, scaling solutions to meet performance, security, and scalability needs.

Partner with stakeholders to drive project and release planning while ensuring adherence to security, privacy, compliance, and operational considerations. Identify dependencies across teams and technologies, coordinate collaboration, and drive alignment on schedules and responsibilities.

Serve as a designated responsible individual (DRI) for live-site incident monitoring, coordination, resolution, and prevention efforts. Maintain live service operations, implement mitigations for complex issues, improve on-call processes, and promote secure operations.

Lead by example in producing extensible, maintainable, secure, well-tested code, applying coding best practices, and managing development risks. Conduct thorough code reviews ensuring adherence to standards, test coverage, security, and best practices.

Lead identification and application of AI automation, tooling and agentic approaches across the software lifecycle incorporating Responsible AI principles and SDLC engineering health measures.

Stay current with Microsoft standards, industry trends and new technologies, share knowledge, and lead learning activities. Ensure compliance with security, privacy, safety, and accessibility standards, maintain audit trails, and understand regulatory requirements.

Collaborate with partner teams to ensure integration, scalability, performance, and escalation pathways before release.

Required Qualifications

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.

Other Requirements

Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role. These requirements include but are not limited to the following specialized security screenings:

Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.

Preferred Qualifications

Master'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 Bachelor'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 equivalent experience.

Experience with AI‑native development where AI systems—not humans—perform most of the product lifecycle (research, specification, design, coding, testing), while humans provide direction, architecture, and approval. It treats AI as a core architectural assumption from day one, with continuous learning loops, probabilistic output handling, and AI‑driven pipelines.

#CAP #Copilot

Software Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142,800 - $274,800 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 $188,000 - $304,200 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.

Insights from previous hires

Top skills: Analytics, Automation, Cascading Style Sheets (Css), Business, Algorithms, Kql, Incident Response Lifecycle, Ejpt, Debugging, Counterterrorism

Common previous titles: Software Engineer II, Tech Support Engineer, Senior Specialist, Software Engineer, Senior Data Scientist, Senior Researcher, Senior Research Director, Senior Scientist, Software Engineer 2, Service Engineer