Visual Studio Code is where millions of developers turn ideas into working software. We are looking for a Senior Software Engineer in Zurich to help build its next generation of editing, development, and GitHub Copilot experiences.
You will help make complex developer workflows feel simple, from everyday coding and debugging to delegating work to AI. This is hands-on product engineering in a large TypeScript and Rust codebase: you will shape a feature or technical area's direction, implement it, and keep improving it after release. We value engineers who care about how software feels, make sound decisions amid ambiguity, and learn from what they ship.
About the team
We work in the open, with direct feedback from developers and extension authors. You will collaborate with engineers, designers, researchers, and product teams across our team, GitHub, and Microsoft. We combine community feedback, research, experiments, and engineering judgment to decide what to build. Performance, accessibility, extensibility, security, and developer control are part of the product, not finishing touches.
Examples of work
The role spans core VS Code and Copilot; illustrative projects include:
- Improve navigation and editing in large repositories without slowing down startup or typing.
- Build a Copilot workflow that helps developers delegate a coding task, inspect the changes, and validate them using VS Code's review, testing, and debugging tools.
- Extend VS Code APIs so new capabilities work reliably with existing extensions and remote development environments.
- Refine our existing engineering process with custom tools fine-tuned for throughput and quality.
Responsibilities
- Identify product and engineering opportunities, helping define what to build through user feedback, experimentation, and technical insight.
- Shape technical direction within your area, balancing near-term product needs with long-term maintainability.
- Lead hands-on design, implementation, testing, and delivery of VS Code features, coordinating contributors and partner-team dependencies as needed.
- Own outcomes after release: understand adoption, investigate quality issues, and use telemetry, evaluations, and user feedback to guide improvements.
- Improve responsiveness and reliability through profiling, debugging, and automated testing; strengthen the tools that let the team experiment and ship confidently.
- Work in the open: discuss designs publicly, investigate community-reported issues, and collaborate directly with developers and extension authors.
- Mentor engineers and improve technical decisions through constructive design and code reviews.
Qualifications
Basic Qualifications:
- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 4+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python OR equivalent experience.
- Solid programming and application engineering skills, with the ability to become productive in a large TypeScript and Rust codebase.
- Experience leading technical design and hands-on delivery for complex projects involving multiple contributors, within one team or across partner teams.
- Sound product and engineering judgment, including the ability to turn an ambiguous user problem into a practical, maintainable solution.
- Solid communication and collaboration skills, including working across team boundaries and helping other engineers grow.
Preferred Qualifications
We welcome a range of product backgrounds; these are helpful experiences, not a checklist. Previous work on developer tools, open-source projects, or AI products is not required.
- Master'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 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.
- Experience building interactive applications, with attention to performance, accessibility, or cross-platform behavior.
- Experience designing APIs, extension points, or reusable components.
- Experience improving products through direct user feedback, telemetry, or experiments.
- Practical familiarity with AI coding tools and judgment about where they help, fail, or change development workflows.
- Experience building AI-powered features or contributing to developer tools or open-source projects.
Product and open source
https://code.visualstudio.com
https://github.com/microsoft/vscode
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.
Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations, and ordinances. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form.
Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.
Software Engineering IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across Switzerland is CHF 146,200.00 - CHF 245,900.00 per year. Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation.
Find additional benefits and pay information here:
https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/corporate-pay/switzerland-corporate-pay.html
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, plus 4+ years of technical engineering experience, or equivalent experience
- Coding experience in languages including C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
- Solid programming and application engineering skills, with ability to become productive in a large TypeScript and Rust codebase
- Experience leading technical design and hands-on delivery for complex projects involving multiple contributors
- Sound product and engineering judgment, including translating ambiguous user problems into practical solutions
- Strong communication and collaboration skills, including cross-team work and mentoring engineers
- Master's degree plus 6+ years of technical engineering experience, or bachelor's degree plus 8+ years, or equivalent experience
- Experience building interactive applications with attention to performance, accessibility, or cross-platform behavior
- Experience designing APIs, extension points, or reusable components
- Experience improving products through user feedback, telemetry, or experiments
- Practical familiarity with AI coding tools
- Experience building AI-powered features or contributing to developer tools or open-source projects
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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