Microsoft 365 powers some of the world's largest productivity, collaboration, and AI experiences, including Copilot, Agents, PAC, and the Substrate platform. As these experiences rapidly evolve, the underlying infrastructure, hardware platforms, and software systems must evolve with them.
We are looking for a Principal Software Engineer to help define the future of hardware strategy and performance architecture across Microsoft 365. This role sits at the intersection of large-scale distributed systems, AI workloads, hardware platform evolution, and software performance engineering.
You will work across engineering, infrastructure, and platform teams to ensure Microsoft 365 is positioned to take full advantage of emerging hardware capabilities while delivering industry-leading performance, efficiency, and scale.
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
Drive hardware strategy and hardware-software co-design for Microsoft 365, Copilot, Agents, PAC, and Substrate workloads.
Define benchmarking, workload characterization, and performance evaluation frameworks used to influence platform and infrastructure decisions across compute, gpu, memory, storage, networking, and accelerator technologies.
Lead deep technical investigations into performance, efficiency, and scalability challenges across large-scale distributed systems and AI-powered services.
Partner with Azure, infrastructure, and platform engineering teams to evaluate emerging hardware technologies and translate platform capabilities into meaningful customer and business impact.
Build the next generation of AI-assisted performance engineering capabilities, enabling faster analysis, diagnosis, optimization, and decision-making across Microsoft 365 services.
Provide technical leadership across organizational boundaries, influencing architecture, platform direction, and engineering practices at Microsoft 365 scale.
Qualifications
Required Qualifications:
- Bachelor'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 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 12+ 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 15+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
- OR equivalent experience.
- Proven track record leading performance, systems, infrastructure, or hardware strategy initiatives for large-scale cloud services.
- Deep understanding of distributed systems, computer architecture, performance engineering, benchmarking, and workload analysis.
- Experience using data, experimentation, and technical analysis to influence platform, architecture, or infrastructure investment decisions.
- Demonstrated ability to lead cross-organizational technical efforts and influence senior engineering leaders.
- Experience applying AI to engineering workflows, performance analysis, diagnostics, optimization, or operational decision-making.
- Experience with AI infrastructure, large-scale inference workloads, retrieval systems, agent platforms, or Copilot-style architectures.
- Experience evaluating emerging hardware platforms and translating hardware capabilities into product and platform advantages.
- Experience building AI-assisted engineering systems for diagnostics, performance analysis, optimization, or operational intelligence.
Software Engineering IC6 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $165,600 - $296,400 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 $220,800 - $331,200 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.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience coding in C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python OR equivalent experience.
- Ability to meet Microsoft Cloud background check and other Microsoft, customer, or government security screening requirements (pass upon hire and periodically thereafter).
- Proven track record leading performance, systems, infrastructure, or hardware strategy initiatives for large-scale cloud services.
- Deep understanding of distributed systems, computer architecture, performance engineering, benchmarking, and workload analysis.
- Experience using data, experimentation, and technical analysis to influence platform, architecture, or infrastructure decisions.
- Demonstrated ability to lead cross-organizational technical efforts and influence senior engineering leaders.
- Experience applying AI to engineering workflows, performance analysis, diagnostics, optimization, or operational decision-making.
- Experience with AI infrastructure, large-scale inference workloads, retrieval systems, agent platforms, or Copilot-style architectures.
- Experience evaluating emerging hardware platforms and translating hardware capabilities into product and platform advantages.
- Experience building AI-assisted engineering systems for diagnostics, performance analysis, optimization, or operational intelligence.
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.
