Senior Software Engineer - CoreAI

The Azure AI Knowledge team is leading the way to deliver the next chapter in retrieval augmented generation by combining knowledge with Agents at scale. We are expanding Azure AI Search, to meet the demands of complex queries that require refinement, reasoning and reflection to deliver high quality results for both people and LLMs. Our customers span different industries, corpus sizes and have many key scenarios. Our work includes:

• Designing, building, and maintaining backend services with external and internal language model dependencies.

• Partnering with Applied Science to support and drive product evolution at scale.

• Working directly with GPUs to support production ML workloads at scale.

• Evaluation of production integrations to ensure end-to-end AI quality of Applied Science deliverables.

You can follow our progression from better search, to RAG, to agentic retrieval:

• Azure AI Search: Outperforming vector search with hybrid retrieval and ranking capabilities - Microsoft Community Hub (https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/ai-azure-ai-services-blog/azure-ai-search-outperforming-vector-search-with-hybrid/ba-p/3929167) ?

• Raising the bar for RAG excellence: introducing generative query rewriting and new ranking model (https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/azure-ai-services-blog/raising-the-bar-for-rag-excellence-query-rewriting-and-new-semantic-ranker/4302729?previewMessage=true)

• Up to 40% better relevance for complex queries with new agentic retrieval engine

As a team, we leverage the diverse backgrounds and experiences of passionate engineers, scientists,?and program managers to help us realize our mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. We believe great products are built by inclusive teams of customer-obsessed individuals who trust each other and work closely together.? We collaborate regularly across the company with teams like Bing and Microsoft Research.

A major aspect of this role is to push our development of knowledge retrieval to the frontier. Someone who can work closely with an Applied Sciences team to solve the hardest customer challenges. Someone who understand where the latest reasoning models are best suited and can support the integration of low latency options in places where speed is critical.

If you are passionate about working?on?the latest and hottest areas in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, all the while making search better for customers across the world and being part of one of the biggest cloud providers, then this is the team you're looking for!

Responsibilities

1. Design, build, and maintain Azure backend services and associated APIs.

2. Leverage AI Tooling to accelerate the delivery of production services.

3. Partner with Applied Science to bring high quality prompts, ML models and pre and post processing components into production in a secure, reliable, and scalable way.

4. Providing evaluation tooling and support of production integrations to ensure end-to-end AI quality of Applied Science deliverables.

5. Focus on high quality goods which includes evaluation support

6. Understanding of state and state management for a production service at scale

7. Contribute to team plans, documents, and communication in a clear and efficient way.

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 4+ 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

• Development of Azure Services with full understanding of service release and live-site responsibilities.Coding in C# and Python in a production system. Ability to move fast while ensuring quality at scale in a collaborative team setting leveraging AI Tooling Development experience with large language models.

• 2+ years' experience developing and deploying live production systems as part of a product team.

• Coding in C++ or Java in a production system.

• Excellent hybrid work skills - clear synchronous and asynchronous communication, strong teamwork, and collaboration skills

• Customer focused, strategic, drives for results, is self-motivated, and has a propensity for?action.

• Problem?solver:?ability to solve problems that the world has not solved?before.

Microsoft is a global technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. We develop, license, and support a wide range of software products, services, and devices that help individuals and businesses realize their full potential.

Our flagship products include the Microsoft 365 productivity cloud, Windows operating system, Azure cloud platform, and Dynamics 365 business applications. We are also a leader in areas such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, developer tools, and gaming through Xbox and Game Pass.

With operations in more than 190 countries and over 220,000 employees worldwide, Microsoft is committed to responsible innovation, inclusive economic growth, and sustainability. We work closely with governments, industries, and communities to ensure that technology serves the public good and helps address some of the world’s most pressing challenges.

As we celebrate our 50th anniversary in 2025, we continue to look forward—investing in AI, cloud, and quantum computing to shape the future of work, education, and society at large scale.