Principal Software Engineer - Systems and Infrastructure

Overview Team Purpose The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Infrastructure Engineering Systems team at Microsoft builds the cloud platform, engineering infrastructure, and developer systems that enable teams to develop, deploy, and operate AI services at scale. You will help create foundational capabilities spanning service delivery, data storage, graph infrastructure, analytics, stream processing, data pipelines, search, compute, media, and service lifecycle management. Working with AI researchers, product engineers, hardware teams, and technical leaders, you will help provide reliable and consistent paths from development to production within a multidisciplinary, collaborative, and inclusive engineering team. We are tackling complex, open-ended infrastructure challenges, evolving existing production systems while building the next generation of infrastructure for AI workloads, where engineers have the opportunity to help shape both the technical direction and the solutions. Role Summary As a Principal Software Engineer-Systems and Infrastructure in the AI Infrastructure Engineering Systems team, you will provide technical leadership for deeply complex and ambiguous products and solutions across the organization. You will own overall system architecture, align technical decisions with business outcomes, guide multiple key initiatives, and shape reusable platforms that support Microsoft's products and AI services at scale. You will navigate ambiguous problem spaces, independently identify and prioritize technical challenges, and translate loosely defined requirements into pragmatic architectures and working systems. You will establish engineering standards, mentor technical leaders, influence cross-functional teams and open-source communities, and drive secure, reliable, and maintainable solutions across product boundaries. This opportunity will allow you to shape organization-wide infrastructure strategy, advance engineering standards across complex product areas, and expand your influence across Microsoft and the broader technology community. 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 Oversee and own the architecture of deeply complex and ambiguous products and solutions, evaluate design options and trade-offs, and align technical decisions with customer, business, and long-term platform outcomes. Drive innovation and delivery across multiple large-scale initiatives, guiding teams through architecture, design, implementation, validation, deployment, and operationalization. Design platform-first products, services, tools, and extensible code that can be reused across the organization while meeting performance, scalability, resiliency, disaster recovery, security, compliance, and cost requirements. Establish and champion company-wide coding, testing, architecture, and operational standards; provide technical leadership in reviews and mentor engineers and technical leaders. Act as a technical authority for cross-product debugging, verification, telemetry, incident learning, repair actions, and automation that targets zero-touch deployment and prevents recurrence. Build alignment across teams, customers, and technical leadership; negotiate dependencies and trade-offs, hold stakeholders accountable for commitments, and execute a long-term vision for core infrastructure. Influence open-source projects and industry practices, evaluate emerging technologies, and advance layered security, privacy, safety, and strategic compliance across complex products. Collaborate across infrastructure and AI teams to improve the performance, efficiency, and reliability of large-scale AI workloads, including model inference. Drive complex, ambiguous infrastructure initiatives from problem discovery through architecture, implementation, and production, making sound technical decisions and navigating trade-offs with incomplete information. 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 background and Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter. Preferred Qualifications 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. Experience providing architecture and technical leadership for multiple large-scale distributed systems, databases, analytics systems, or platform product areas. Experience aligning technical decisions with business outcomes and influencing cross-functional teams and senior technical leadership. Experience developing systems with languages such as Java, C++, or Rust and applying concepts such as query execution, indexing, concurrency, distributed algorithms, or data structures. Experience influencing open-source projects or participating in open-source project management and governance. Experience building interactive services, analytics interfaces, data infrastructure, compute infrastructure, or other large-scale platform systems. Demonstrated ability to independently navigate ambiguous technical challenges, define problems, evaluate architectural trade-offs, and deliver solutions in complex, evolving environments. Familiarity with AI/ML infrastructure concepts, such as model inference, GPU computing, model serving, or distributed training. 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.