Online Advertising is one of the fastest growing multi-billion-dollar business on the Internet today. Search engines, web publishers, major ad networks, and ad exchanges are now serving billions of ad impressions per day. Microsoft is innovating rapidly in this space to grow its share of this market by providing the advertising industry with the state-of-the-art online advertising platform and service.
In Microsoft Advertiser Platform team, we are building the marketing solutions for the next generation of e-commerce. As a Principal Software Engineer, you will drive complex missions and multi-team initiatives from conception through production, establish architectural direction, and influence engineering strategy across organizational boundaries. You will partner closely with product management, design, data science, and engineering teams to translate ambiguous customer and business needs into secure, reliable, and maintainable solutions which helps scale the capabilities of the marketers and help them achieve more.
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.
Starting January 26, 2026, Microsoft AI (MAI) employees who live within a 50-mile commute of a designated Microsoft office in the U.S. or 25-mile commute of a non-U.S., country-specific location are expected to work from the office at least four days per week. This expectation is subject to local law and may vary by jurisdiction.
Responsibilities
- Provide hands-on technical leadership for advertiser-facing products and platforms, raising the engineering bar for technical areas like architecture, quality, security, accessibility, performance, and reliability.
- Define and drive long-term technical strategy and architecture across frontend, service, and data layers.
- Lead complex, cross-team initiatives from requirements and design through implementation, release, measurement, and live-site operations.
- Build and evolve modern user experiences using React, TypeScript, and related web technologies.
- Apply customer insights, experimentation, telemetry, and business results to guide technical decisions and product improvements.
- Identify systemic technical challenges and develop reusable platforms, frameworks, and engineering patterns that benefit multiple teams.
- Drive technical alignment across engineering, product, design, and partner organizations while navigating ambiguity and competing priorities.
- Establish engineering practices for testing, observability, deployment, incident response, and operational excellence.
- Anticipate technical risks, resolve complex design and production issues, and make pragmatic trade-offs that support long-term product health.
- Mentor engineers and technical leaders, strengthen engineering capabilities, and foster an inclusive environment where people can do their best work.
- Contribute to broader organizational strategy and influence investment decisions through technical expertise and customer-focused judgment.
Qualifications
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.
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.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Extensive experience designing, developing, and shipping production software products or services.
- Demonstrated expertise in full-stack development, with substantial experience building complex frontend applications using JavaScript or TypeScript and modern frameworks such as React.
- Experience defining architecture and technical strategy for large-scale products, platforms, or distributed systems.
- Proven ability to lead complex initiatives involving multiple engineering teams and organizational stakeholders.
- Solid software design, coding, debugging, and problem-solving skills.
- Experience delivering secure, reliable, maintainable, and measurable customer-facing solutions.
- Demonstrated ability to operate effectively in ambiguous environments and make sound technical and product trade-offs.
- Effective written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to influence technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Experience with C#/.NET and the design of scalable APIs, services, and distributed systems.
- Experience with Microsoft Azure or another major cloud-computing platform.
- Experience with experimentation, telemetry, data-informed product development, and customer behavior analysis.
- Experience with CI/CD, automated testing, observability, service health, and live-site operations.
- Experience building products for advertising, commerce, enterprise, or other workflow-intensive domains.
- Demonstrated success mentoring senior engineers and developing technical leadership across teams.
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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 6+ years technical engineering experience OR equivalent experience
- Experience coding in languages including C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
- Ability to meet Microsoft Cloud background check and specialized security screenings
- Extensive experience designing, developing, and shipping production software products or services
- Substantial experience building complex frontend applications using JavaScript or TypeScript and frameworks such as React
- Experience defining architecture and technical strategy for large-scale products, platforms, or distributed systems
- Experience with C#/.NET and design of scalable APIs and services
- Experience with Microsoft Azure or another major cloud-computing platform
- Experience with experimentation, telemetry, data-informed product development, and customer behavior analysis
- Experience with CI/CD, automated testing, observability, service health, and live-site operations
- Experience building products for advertising, commerce, enterprise, or workflow-intensive domains
- Demonstrated success mentoring senior engineers and developing technical leadership across teams
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.
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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.
