Principal Software Engineering Manager

The Business & Industry Copilots (BIC) group is a rapidly growing organization that is responsible for the Microsoft Dynamics 365 suite of products, Microsoft Copilot Studio, Power Apps, Power Automate, Dataverse, AI Builder, Microsoft Industry Solution and more. Microsoft is considered one of the leaders in Software as a Service in the world of business applications and this organization is at the heart of how business applications are designed and delivered.

The Agent 365 organization at Microsoft is among the most thrilling to be a part of. Agent 365 products herald a new era of business applications that are data-initiated, AI-driven, built for collaboration, and simplify business problem-solving with low-code/no-code platforms. Our team is responsible for developing the platform for Dynamics 365 suite of business applications, and the Power Platform suite of low-code tools. We are at the vanguard of digital transformation, enabling organizations to revolutionize the creation of Copilots through state-of-the-art AI solutions and product offerings. 

We are looking for a Principal Software Engineering Manager to join our team. 

You will operate at the frontier of AI science and product innovation, driving the design and deployment of next-generation AI systems at scale. You will need to design and build systems that allow LLMs to reason over large amounts of data as well as leveraging lighter weight models in place for specific scenarios for specific scenarios. We are looking for an individual who has the proven capability of working with research teams and partnering with them to deliver joint solutions.  This can range from working together on building fine-tuned models to coming up with ways to build custom LLMs for specific product needs.

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

• Lead the design and development of advanced AI models and agentic systems for real-world applications.
• Own and drive end-to-end model training, including data pipeline design, distributed training optimization, and performance evaluation.
• Stay up to date with the latest advancements in LLM, NLP, deep learning, search and AI research.
• Research and develop an understanding of the state-of-the-art tools, technologies, and methods being used in the research community and product groups. Drive innovation by staying current with the latest research, technologies, and best practices in AI/ML, and Translate research breakthroughs into production-ready algorithms, contributing to core capabilities such as search, planning, and long-term memory.
• Collaborate closely with engineering, product, and research teams to productionize models, build scalable, robust pipelines and provide support for in production AI Models/Agents
• Collaborate with stakeholders to define project goals, success criteria, and deliverables.  Lead end-to-end lifecycle of machine learning models, from prototyping and implementation to evaluation, deployment, and monitoring.
• Conduct applied science experiments, create and validate metrics, develop ML pipeline and modeling algorithm in the area of Large Language Models, Natural Language Processing, Information Retrieval, and Machine Learning.  
• Conduct experiments to evaluate model performance (including Large Language Models), troubleshoot issues, and iterate improvements.
• Develop and deploy conversational and language understanding models at 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.
• 2+ years’ experience with transformer-based models (e.g., GPT, Llama).  
• 2+ years’ experience in coding and design, specifically in the development of AI models for scaled production services.    
• 2+ years’ experience in shipping applied research to production, highlighting a track record of combining coding skills with advanced expertise in AI model development. 

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:

•  8+ years’ experience conducting research as part of a research program (in academic or industry settings).  
• 6+ years’ experience in coding and design, specifically in the development of AI models for scaled production services.    
• 6+ years’ experience in shipping applied research to production, highlighting a track record of combining coding skills with advanced expertise in AI model development.   
• Expertise in one or more of the following: supervised learning, deep learning, natural language processing, reinforcement learning, computer vision, time series forecasting, or causal inference.  
• Experience programming with C# is preferred  
• Relevant experience in Applications of Foundation Models, Domain Adaptation of Foundation Models (e.g. fine-tuning LLMs/SLMs) or Vision, Audio, and Multimodal Foundation Models or agentic Systems or Prompt Tuning or Natural Language Processing or Human-AI Interaction  
• Experience demonstrating problem solving and data analysis skills, with expertise in developing or applying predictive analytics, statistical modelling, data mining, or machine learning algorithms.  

Software Engineering M6 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $163,000 - $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

Microsoft will accept applications for the role until September 29, 2025 

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.

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