Principal Software Engineer

• Put security first: Build and ship solutions that meet enterprise security standards (threat modeling, secure coding, privacy, and compliance) from design through production.
• Translate business needs into technical solutions: Partner with stakeholders to define problem statements, success metrics, and architectural approaches that deliver measurable outcomes.
• Design and lead architecture: Own end-to-end system design for cloud and AI workloads, making sound tradeoffs across reliability, performance, cost, and maintainability.
• Deliver quickly without sacrificing quality: Use modern engineering practices (CI/CD, automated testing, observability, and progressive delivery) to iterate fast and reduce operational risk.
• Drive customer success and adoption: Work directly with customer engineering teams to deliver production-ready solutions, unblock delivery, and ensure outcomes are adopted at scale.
• Build reusable, scalable assets: Create solution accelerators, reference architectures, and code that can be reused across customers and scenarios to maximize impact.
• Operate effectively in ambiguity: Continuously learn and adapt as technologies and customer priorities evolve; bring clarity, structure, and momentum to complex engagements.
• Lead and mentor across disciplines: Provide technical direction, coach engineers, and collaborate with product, data, and security partners to deliver as one team.
• Lead complex delivery end-to-end: Coordinate multiple workstreams, manage dependencies, and raise the bar on reliability and operational excellence for services running in production.
• Model inclusive, customer-obsessed leadership: Create an environment of trust, accountability, and continuous improvement while representing the company professionally with external stakeholders.
• Embodies our culture (https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/culture) and values (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/about/corporate-values)

Required/Minimum Qualifications (RQs/MQs)

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, or related technical discipline AND technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
• Experience building or integrating AI/ML or LLM-based solutions, prompt engineering, RAG, fine-tuning
• Familiarity with deploying and operating AI systems in production environments
• Understanding of model evaluation, data quality, and performance monitoring
• Experience using cloud AI platforms (Azure ML, OpenAI, or similar)
• OR equivalent experience.

Additional or Preferred Qualifications (PQs)

• Master's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
• OR equivalent experience.
• Experience partnering directly with customers or internal stakeholders to deliver solutions end-to-end.
• Comfortable with travel up to 25% (role dependent)

Our team prides itself on embracing a growth mindset, inspiring excellence, and encouraging everyone to share their unique viewpoints and be their authentic selves. Join us and help create life-changing innovations that impact billions around the world!

At Microsoft, we are seeking people who have a passion for the positive impact technology can have on communities and for making a difference in the world. Within ISE, you will find a wide range of backgrounds, perspectives, personal and cultural experiences which are vital to our success with our customers. It's an informal and flexible work environment and you'll be welcome to work in the way that best enables you to get your job done.

We invest in your health, wellness, and financial future by offering a competitive package including a wide range of benefits built around your personal needs and those close to you.

The Industry Solutions Engineering (ISE) team is a global engineering organization that has operated Microsoft's Forward Deployed Engineering function for over a decade, working directly with customers to co-engineer solutions to their toughest business challenges. We don't build things and hand them over. We embed with customers, engineer side-by-side, and create real business value together. We operate in small, multidisciplinary teams, enabling tight feedback loops and rapid iteration. Together, we build AI-powered, cloud-based solutions that deliver measurable business outcomes. Our work is powered by Hypervelocity Engineering (HVE), a methodology of applying AI across the full lifecycle to build and ship secure, production-ready solutions from day one, accelerating time to value without sacrificing quality, control, or trust. We collaborate with Microsoft product teams, partners, and open-source communities to create reusable, high-impact solution patterns that contribute to the broader Microsoft platform.