Microsoft 365 and Copilot run on Substrate & Work IQ (SWIQ)—the trusted data and intelligence platform powering service health, operational excellence, business insights, and AI-driven decision making across Microsoft's largest cloud services. As Microsoft 365 and Copilot continue to grow at unprecedented scale, SWIQ provides the foundational intelligence that connects product experiences, infrastructure, operations, and business outcomes, enabling teams to build, operate, and innovate with confidence.
The SWIQ Performance Team is hiring a Principal Software Engineer to define and drive the technical strategy for Copilot and Microsoft 365 Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) intelligence. You will build the trusted platform that connects product usage, service dependencies, infrastructure consumption, operational telemetry, and Finance-aligned cost models into a unified and scalable economics foundation. This platform powers critical business decisions across engineering, capacity planning, product strategy, and finance, helping Microsoft optimize investments while accelerating innovation.
As a Principal Engineer, you will lead the design of durable architectures that transform complex cross-organizational challenges into trusted platforms, reusable intelligence, and measurable business impact. You will work across rapidly evolving Copilot experiences—including agents, enterprise productivity, collaboration, and emerging AI workloads—to make the relationships between cost, quality, reliability, efficiency, and customer value transparent and actionable.
A key expectation of this role is to drive AI-native transformation. You will reimagine how economics systems are built and operated by leveraging agents, intelligent automation, and machine reasoning to discover cost drivers, identify attribution gaps, evaluate optimization opportunities, recommend actions, learn from outcomes, and continuously improve decision quality. Your work will help shift operational and business decision making from manual analysis toward intelligent, autonomous systems that scale with the future of Microsoft 365 and Copilot.
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
Shape the future of COGS intelligence platforms, defining the technical vision that enables Microsoft 365 and Copilot teams to understand, optimize, and continuously improve cost, efficiency, reliability, and customer value at global scale.
Build trusted systems of intelligence that unify operational telemetry, product signals, infrastructure usage, and financial models into a single source of truth for engineering and business decisions.
Drive the shift from human-driven operations to autonomous operations by leveraging agents and AI-powered workflows to analyze signals, identify opportunities, recommend actions, and accelerate execution.
Lead cross-organizational initiatives, transforming complex and ambiguous problems into strategic investments and measurable outcomes.
Influence architecture and engineering direction, partnering with senior leaders to align technical strategy with business priorities and long-term platform goals.
Foster a culture of technical excellence, ownership, and innovation, mentoring engineers, scaling best practices, and advancing AI-native engineering methodologies across SWIQ.
Qualifications
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.
- 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.
- Proven ability to architect trusted intelligence platforms that connect operational telemetry, product signals, infrastructure consumption, and business outcomes at scale.
- Demonstrated success setting long-term technical direction and influencing engineering strategy across multiple organizations, translating ambiguity into durable architecture and measurable business impact.
- Experience leading complex initiatives, driving alignment around shared goals and delivering broad organizational adoption.
- Solid technical depth in cloud-scale architectures, platform engineering, or AI technologies, with a track record of delivering scalable solutions.
- Passion for AI-native engineering and autonomous operations, with experience applying agents, intelligent automation to improve operational efficiency, and engineering productivity.
- Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers, elevate technical excellence, and cultivate a culture of innovation, ownership, and continuous improvement.
- Experience in FinOps, Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), business intelligence, including the ability to connect technical investments to business outcomes and operational efficiency.
- Experience building and scaling large-scale cloud platforms that support mission-critical services.
- Experience with large language models (LLMs), agent platforms, AI-powered systems, or AI workload optimization
- Experience establishing reusable engineering platforms, governance frameworks, and operational standards across cloud-scale services.
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.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field, or equivalent experience
- 6+ years of technical engineering experience with coding in languages including C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python, or equivalent experience
- Ability to pass the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire or transfer and every two years thereafter
- Master's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field and 8+ years of technical engineering experience, or bachelor's degree and 12+ years of experience, or equivalent experience
- Experience architecting trusted intelligence platforms connecting telemetry, product signals, infrastructure consumption, and business outcomes at scale
- Experience setting long-term technical direction and influencing engineering strategy across organizations
- Experience leading complex initiatives and driving organizational alignment and adoption
- Technical depth in cloud-scale architectures, platform engineering, or AI technologies
- Experience applying agents or intelligent automation to improve operational efficiency and engineering productivity
- Experience with FinOps, COGS, or business intelligence
- Experience building and scaling large-scale cloud platforms for mission-critical services
- Experience with LLMs, agent platforms, AI-powered systems, or AI workload optimization
- Experience establishing reusable engineering platforms, governance frameworks, and operational standards
- Ability to mentor engineers and cultivate technical excellence, innovation, ownership, and continuous improvement
Microsoft Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Microsoft and has not been reviewed or approved by Microsoft.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Pay is presented as broadly competitive overall, with clear role/level/location variation and an emphasis on using posted ranges and band information for apples-to-apples comparisons.
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Retirement Support — Retirement benefits are described as a standout, highlighted by a strong 401(k) match structure and immediate vesting, plus additional plan features for tax-advantaged saving.
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Parental & Family Support — Family-oriented benefits are portrayed as a meaningful strength, with substantial paid parental leave and added supports like back-up care and adoption/surrogacy assistance.
Microsoft Insights
What We Do
At Microsoft, our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Our mission is grounded in both the world in which we live and the future we strive to create. Today, we live in a mobile-first, cloud-first world, and the transformation we are driving across our businesses is designed to enable Microsoft and our customers to thrive in this world.
