Principal Software Engineer

Are you an established Engineer looking for a challenge and ready to tackle strategic cross-organization investments that span Microsoft AI, Office, and Windows to create web experiences for over 500M users and drive daily habit with users? Join us to innovate and create impactful web experiences that shape the daily habits of millions.

We are looking for a highly skilled Principal Software Engineer (Full-stack) to join our Platform team, who will provide technical leadership to key projects, and collaborate with backend and frontend teams to maintain and deliver key features that will be used across multiple sites. You will provide vision for the services you own, develop strategy aligning with stakeholders and develop execution plans to successfully deliver on commitments. The ideal candidate will be an experienced full stack engineer with knowledge of modern cloud-based architecture and services, including containers, caching, load-balancing, and client-side rendering like TypeScript and Web Components. Your responsibilities will include architecting, designing, coding and operationalizing services at hyper scale.  

MSN is a personalized content feed powering user experiences across Microsoft. Our mission is to empower every person on the planet to be informed, entertained, and inspired. With nearly 25 years of history, MSN has evolved into a premier content destination with high-quality content, AI-powered user-controlled personalization, and massive global reach. Over the past 4 years, AI and Machine Learning technologies have fueled massive growth, transforming MSN’s content moderation, personalization, and content entry points.

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

• Partners with appropriate stakeholders to set the product and technology strategy for a portfolio of services or products of highest importance (e.g., critical time horizon, impacting several product lines, influencing multiple product generations) or very deeply in a smaller set of services or products.
• Oversees and establishes procedures around taking on dependencies for the most critical or highest impact spaces such as those with deep technical domains connections, problems impacting many different areas, or a broad set of products or services at critical junctures.
• Writes proof of concept code as needed and may develop code directly, actively troubleshooting the most difficult and complex issues.
• Is accountable to make difficult and impactful decisions, and for any product or service deployment impacts and related outcomes.
• Ensures robust and effective ongoing support using effective telemetry and incident response processes for the most critical or highest-impact services or products.
• Provides technical leadership and oversight to ensure the correct processes are followed to achieve a high degree of security, privacy, safety, and accessibility across multiple solutions, products, or teams across organizations.

Qualifications

Required 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.
• 4+ years experience in full-stack development and software architecture positions.
• 4+ years experience in designing scalable, maintainable, and efficient online service architectures utilizing cloud platforms such as Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud.
• OR equivalent experience.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master'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 Bachelor'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 equivalent experience.
• 6+ years of working experience in large scale system architecture, design, development, testing, and release, including but not limited to web applications, microservices in layers, database design, API design, performance tuning, telemetry design and analysis.
• Demonstrated programming skills and knowledge of architectural patterns for large, high-scale applications.
• Experience of leading big initiatives spanning multiple teams and organizations and leveraging deep domain expertise to influence product roadmap.
• Excellence in software engineering practices, coding and proficient foundation in data structures, algorithms with demonstrated testing, debugging and analytical skills.
• OR Bachelor'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 equivalent experience.

Software Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $139,900 - $274,800 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 $188,000 - $304,200 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 October 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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