Principal Software Engineer (AI / Agentic Developer Productivity)

• Own and deliver complete features across the development lifecycle, including design, architecture, implementation, testability, debugging, shipping, and servicing.
• Use AI in your daily coding and advocate to the team and customers an evolving state-of-the-art of how best to do this.
• Demonstrate resiliency to experiment and try multiple AI approaches that may not work - because no one has tried them before.
• Provide mentorship and coaching to engineers in, and beyond, your team.
• Write and review clean, well-thought-out code with an emphasis on quality, performance, simplicity, durability, scalability, and maintainability.
• Contribute positively to a culture where everyone can bring their full and authentic self and where we do our best work as a result.

• 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., * Prior experience building with Agent SDKs, large language models (LLMs), prompt engineering, or AI orchestration frameworks (e.g., LangChain, Semantic Kernel, AutoGen, LlamaIndex, or similar).
• Familiarity with agentic AI development patterns - multi-step reasoning, tool/function calling, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and human-in-the-loop workflows.
• Proven experience as a Software Engineer delivering large-scale, production-quality systems.
• Proficient software engineering fundamentals: system design, algorithms, testing, debugging, and code review.
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical direction and mentor peers in a collaborative team environment.
• Comfort working in ambiguous, fast-moving problem spaces where best practices are still being established.
• Hands-on experience with AI-powered developer tooling and coding assistants, such as:
• GitHub Copilot and Copilot Workspace - AI pair programming, CLI, and task-oriented development
• Claude Code - agentic CLI for autonomous software engineering tasks
• OpenAI Codex / ChatGPT - LLM-based code generation and explanation
• Cursor - AI-native code editor with inline generation and multi-file edits
• Prior experience using agentic plugins, agents, skills, hooks, etc.
• Experience dogfooding, evaluating, and forming opinions on emerging AI developer tools, and translating those insights into team-wide best practices
• Background in developer tooling, build systems, CI/CD pipelines, or engineering systems at scale.

#GXP #GXPHiring

Software Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142,800.00 - $274,800.00 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 $188,000.00 - $304,200.00 per year.

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.