CoreAI is at the forefront of Microsoft’s mission to redefine how software is built and experienced. We are responsible for building the foundational platforms, services, programming models, and developer experiences that power the next generation of applications using Generative AI. Our work enables developers and enterprises to harness the full potential of AI to create intelligent, adaptive, and transformative software.
Within CoreAI, the Modernization Agent team is transforming how developers modernize existing software. We are building AI-powered, agentic experiences that help developers understand complex codebases, identify modernization opportunities, plan and execute upgrades, and validate changes. Our goal is to move modernization from a largely manual and project-based activity toward an intelligent, continuous engineering workflow where agents work alongside developers to make software easier to evolve, maintain, secure, and operate.
As a Software Engineer 2 - CoreAI on the Modernization Agent team, you will design and build the systems, agents, and developer experiences that power these modernization workflows. You will work across the software engineering lifecycle, from understanding existing applications and dependencies to generating and validating changes, integrating with developer workflows, and measuring the impact of modernization.
In this role, you will solve challenging engineering problems at the intersection of AI and software development. You will build scalable agentic capabilities that can reason over large codebases, interact with engineering tools and repositories, automate complex modernization tasks, and safely produce changes developers can understand, review, and trust. You will partner closely with other engineering teams and customers to turn real-world modernization challenges into reusable product capabilities.
Success in this role requires software engineering fundamentals together with curiosity about how AI is changing the way software is built. You should be comfortable working across different technologies, codebases, and developer environments and be passionate about building AI-powered experiences that provide measurable value to developers. A collaborative mindset, customer focus, and willingness to experiment and learn quickly will be critical to thriving in this position.
At Microsoft, our 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
- Build AI-Powered Modernization Experiences: Design and implement agentic experiences that help developers understand, plan, execute, and validate software modernization work across complex applications and codebases.
- Architect for Scale and Sustainability: Design and evolve durable, scalable architectures for modernization agents and supporting services, balancing rapid innovation with long-term maintainability, reliability, security, and performance.
- Direct Engineering Impact: Lead by example by producing high-quality, extensible, and maintainable code. Establish and apply engineering practices, metrics, testing strategies, and coding patterns that improve product quality and accelerate development.
- Advance AI-First Engineering: Explore and apply advances in AI, models, agents, tools, and software engineering techniques to improve the effectiveness and autonomy of modernization workflows while maintaining appropriate developer control and trust.
- Integrate Across the Developer Workflow: Build capabilities that connect modernization agents with repositories, build and validation systems, developer tools, and other engineering workflows to create cohesive end-to-end modernization experiences.
- Build Foundational Capabilities: Develop reusable components, agent capabilities, tools, and platform building blocks that enable the team and partner organizations to rapidly expand modernization scenarios.
- Foster Engineering Alignment: Work across engineering teams and partner organizations to drive clarity, technical alignment, and shared ownership of architecture, interfaces, and modernization experiences.
- Champion Customer-Centric Development: Engage directly with developers, product teams, and enterprise customers to understand modernization challenges, incorporate feedback, and ensure that product investments address meaningful real-world problems.
- Operational Excellence: Maintain a high bar for reliability, security, privacy, performance, and responsible AI. Use telemetry and customer signals to continuously improve the quality and effectiveness of modernization experiences.
Qualifications
Required/Minimum Qualifications:
- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 2+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
- OR equivalent experience
- 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/Additional Qualifications:
- Experience designing, developing, and operating large-scale software systems, developer platforms, or developer tools.
- Experience building AI-powered applications, agents, or workflows using large language models and related AI technologies.
- Experience working with developer ecosystems, including source repositories, build systems, CI/CD, testing, code analysis, or developer tooling.
- Experience working across multiple programming languages, frameworks, or application architectures and an understanding of the challenges involved in evolving and modernizing existing software.
- Experience leading significant engineering projects, driving technical design, collaborating across teams, and delivering complex capabilities from concept through production.
- Demonstrated ability to use customer feedback, telemetry, experimentation, and engineering metrics to improve product quality and developer experience.
Software Engineering IC3 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $102,100 - $202,200 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 $133,800 - $219,200 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 a related technical field and 2+ years of technical engineering experience with coding
- Equivalent experience may substitute for the bachelor's degree and experience requirement
- Coding experience in one or more of C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
- Ability to meet Microsoft, customer, and/or government security screening requirements
- Pass the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire or transfer and every two years thereafter
- Experience designing, developing, and operating large-scale software systems, developer platforms, or developer tools
- Experience building AI-powered applications, agents, or workflows using large language models and related AI technologies
- Experience with source repositories, build systems, CI/CD, testing, code analysis, or developer tooling
- Experience working across multiple programming languages, frameworks, or application architectures and modernizing existing software
- Experience leading significant engineering projects and driving technical design across teams
- Ability to use customer feedback, telemetry, experimentation, and engineering metrics to improve product quality and developer experience
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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Healthcare Strength — Medical, dental, and vision coverage is described as comprehensive, with U.S. plans covering preventive care at 100% and limiting annual out-of-pocket costs. Mental-health counseling, employee assistance, and wellbeing resources are also emphasized.
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Parental & Family Support — Parental leave, family-caregiver leave, childcare assistance, and family concierge services are highlighted as core elements. These supports are presented alongside parenting and family-planning resources.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Vacation, holidays, and flexible work schedules are emphasized, with generous time-away policies noted. Leave options extend beyond standard vacation to include caregiver and parental programs.
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.
