Microsoft

Principal Applied AI Engineering Manager

Microsoft$162K — $195K *
Information Technology
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's Degree AND 6+ years experience in low-code application development, engineering product management, data analysis, or product development.
  • Bachelor's Degree AND 12+ years experience in the same fields for preferred candidates.
  • Proficiency in Python and C# with experience in production AI/ML systems.
  • Familiarity with LLM-based systems, including prompt engineering and RAG architectures.
  • Experience with Azure and cloud-native service development, including CI/CD practices.
  • 3+ years of experience in people management or team leadership.
  • 4+ years of experience with low-code/no-code platforms.

Responsibilities

  • Build and lead a team of Applied AI Engineers, fostering a collaborative and high-trust culture.
  • Drive the full lifecycle of production AI agents, from initial specs to deployment.
  • Define and enforce architecture patterns, code quality standards, and deployment practices for the AI team.
  • Ensure the reliability of deployed AI agents through monitoring, incident response, and continuous improvement.
  • Establish evaluation frameworks to validate the correctness and safety of AI agents before deployment.
  • Shape product and platform roadmaps in collaboration with other engineering teams based on customer needs.
  • Own and track key performance indicators to measure business impact and engineering effectiveness.
  • Implement responsible AI practices and ensure compliance in all AI systems.

Benefits

  • Opportunity to work with cutting-edge AI technologies and frameworks.
  • Comprehensive career development programs for technical and leadership growth.
  • Flexible work environment that fosters innovation and creativity.
  • Access to mentorship from experienced leaders in AI engineering.
  • Contributions to impactful projects that enhance customer experience and satisfaction.
Full Job Description
Responsibilities
• Build and lead the AI engineering pod - Hire, coach, and develop a team of Applied AI Engineers; foster an inclusive, high-trust culture where engineers ship production AI services
with ownership and velocity.
• Own engineering execution for agentic AI services - Drive the end-to-end lifecycle of production AI agents from spec to deployment, including LLM orchestration, multi-agent
workflows, RAG pipelines, and evaluation systems.
• Set technical direction and engineering standards - Define architecture patterns, code quality bar, evaluation frameworks, deployment practices, and observability standards for the AI
engineering pod. Ensure production-quality C# and Python with TDD, CI/CD, staged rollouts, and full observability.
• Own production health and reliability - Ensure deployed AI agents meet quality, performance, and safety standards. Drive incident response, root cause analysis, and continuous
improvement for agent systems in production.
• Build and maintain evaluation systems - Establish evaluation frameworks including rubrics, golden datasets, and judge agents to validate agent correctness and safety before and
after production deployment. Ensure agents graduate through shadow mode to autonomous operation with eval gates at each stage.
• Influence product and platform roadmaps - Partner with product, platform engineering, and Azure service teams to shape the agentic AI platform direction. Translate customer support
patterns and demand signals into engineering priorities.
• Drive measurable business impact - Own KPIs including case volume reduction, automation accuracy, resolution time improvement, and customer satisfaction impact. Use data-driven
insights to set OKRs and demonstrate engineering ROI.
• Ensure responsible AI and compliance - Partner with AI Governance to embed responsible AI practices, PII protection, action boundaries, and audit trails into all agent systems
architecturally.
• Develop engineering talent - Mentor engineers on applied AI engineering craft, including agentic system design, evaluation-driven development, and the judgment to know where
agents should and should not act autonomously. Build career growth paths across AI engineering competencies.

Qualifications

Required qualifications

  • Bachelor's Degree AND 6+ years experience in low-code application development, engineering product/technical program management, data analysis, or product development OR equivalent experience.


Additional or preferred qualifications

  • Bachelor's Degree AND 12+ years experience in low-code application development, engineering product/technical program management, data analysis, or product development OR equivalent experience.
  • Proficiency in Python and C# with hands-on experience building production AI/ML systems.
  • Experience with LLM-based systems, including prompt engineering, RAG architectures, or agent frameworks.
  • Experience with cloud platforms (Azure) and cloud-native service development (microservices, containers, CI/CD).
  • 3+ years people management and/or informal/indirect team leadership experience.
  • 4+ years of experience using low-code/no-code platforms (e.g., Dataverse, Power Applications).
  • 3+ years of experience managing and configuring artificial intelligence solutions (e.g., chatbots).
  • 4+ years of experience with programming/coding.


This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

About Microsoft

Microsoft is an American multinational corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells a range of software products and services. Microsoft’s devices and consumer (D&C) licensing segment licenses the Windows operating system and related software, Microsoft Office for consumers, and the Windows Phone operating system. The company’s computing and gaming hardware segment provides Xbox gaming and entertainment consoles and accessories, second-party and third-party video games, and Xbox Live subscriptions; surface devices and accessories; and Microsoft PC accessories. Its phone hardware segment offers Lumia smartphones and other non-Lumia phones. Its D&C segment provides Windows Store, Xbox Live transactions, and Windows phone store; search advertising; display advertising; Office 365 Home and Office 365 Personal; first-party video games; and other consumer products and services as well as operating retail stores. Microsoft’s commercial licensing segments license server products, including Windows Server, Microsoft SQL Server, Visual Studio, System Center, and related Client Access Licenses (CALs); Windows Embedded; Windows operating system; Microsoft Office for business, including Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, and related CALs; Microsoft Dynamics business solutions; and Skype. Its commercial segment offers enterprise services, including premier support services and Microsoft consulting services; commercial cloud comprising Office 365 Commercial, other Microsoft Office online offerings, Dynamics CRM Online, and Microsoft Azure; and other commercial products and online services. The company markets and distributes its products through original equipment manufacturers, distributors, and resellers, as well as online.

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Learn more about Microsoft
Size
181,000 employees
Market Cap
$1,762.4 billion
Industry
Net Income
$51.3 billion
Founded
1975
5 Year Trend
+15.5%
Revenue
$153.2 billion
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