Principal Software Engineer Lead

Commercial Engineering & AI (CEAI) partners closely with stakeholders to accelerate the transformation of Microsoft’s commercial business into a frontier organization. We bring together AI-native engineering, modern platforms, and deep commercial insight to reimagine how work gets done—at scale and with impact.

Within this context, the Scale and Partner AI Experiences (SPAI) organization is at the forefront of transforming Microsoft’s sales ecosystem through AI-first innovation. Our mission is to build intelligent, scalable platforms that power partner and customer success, accelerating Microsoft’s commercial growth through modern, AI-driven experiences.

As a Principal Software Engineer Lead, you will design and build AI-native systems that go beyond supporting workflows—they intelligently transform them. You will work across data, systems, and agentic workflows to enable faster insights, smarter decisions, and higher productivity across the global sales ecosystem.

• Understand end-to-end business processes, workflows, and data flows across the Microsoft sales ecosystem, and identify opportunities to simplify, automate, and agentify those experiences.
• Rapidly prototype and deliver POCs and iterate on solutions using an experimentation-driven engineering approach.
• Design, build, and ship scalable, production-quality features and intelligent services using modern engineering practices.
• Collaborate across teams to integrate systems, data, and signals into cohesive AI-powered workflows.
• Debug, troubleshoot, and improve system reliability and performance using telemetry and diagnostics
• Build secure, compliant, and responsible AI solutions ready for production scale.
• Contribute to a culture of continuous learning, experimentation, and engineering excellence.
• Mentor and grow the energetic, diverse, and driven team with a good mix of senior, mid-level, and entry talent. 

Required/minimum 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.

Preferred Qualifications

• 6+ years of professional software engineering experience with hands-on coding in languages such as C#, Java, Python, or React.
• Proficiency in AI-native development — working within Agent Harnesses (GitHub Copilot CLI, Coding Agents), authoring Markdown specs/ADRs and YAML configs as Agent-consumable inputs, orchestrating multi-step Agentic workflows across the SDLC, and reviewing Agent-generated code and PRs with production-grade rigor.
• Fundamentals in data structures, algorithms, object-oriented design, and scalable systems.
• Experience building, testing, debugging, and maintaining production-quality software, following established engineering practices as well as leveraging large language models (LLMs).
• Problem-solving and technical judgment skills, with the ability to design scoped solutions, debug complex issues, and improve service performance.
• Experience in driving AI (LLM/ML) based engineering solution.
• Experience with cloud platforms and distributed/service-oriented architecture.
• Familiarity with reliability, monitoring, and performance optimization practices.
• Collaboration and communication skills, with experience in design reviews.
• Experience building impactful, user-facing AI solutions. 

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.

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.