Microsoft

Principal Legal Engineer

Microsoft$185K — $278K *
Legal & Accounting
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Juris Doctor Degree or equivalent and 6+ years as a practicing attorney or equivalent experience.
  • Active law license in a relevant jurisdiction.
  • 5+ years experience in a specialized legal practice area (e.g., tax, copyright).
  • 3+ years in-house counsel experience.
  • Hands-on experience with CRM or matter-management platforms, preferably Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Responsibilities

  • Build intelligence layers to measure AI investments in the CELA CPS group.
  • Maintain and improve platform reliability for the CPS technology stack.
  • Develop AI solutions to extend platform capabilities and integrate first-party AI.
  • Reimagine legal workflows and translate them into technical requirements for the platform.
  • Provide training and support to legal professionals to enhance AI usage in operations.

Benefits

  • Opportunity to shape the adoption of AI within the legal industry at Microsoft.
  • Collaborative work environment with close interaction between legal and technical teams.
  • Ability to work on cutting-edge legal technology projects.
  • Focus on building diverse and inclusive practices within the workplace.
Full Job Description
Overview

Microsoft's Corporate, External & Legal Affairs (CELA) organization supports one of the most complex commercial operations in the world. The Customer & Partner Solutions (CPS) group is where legal meets the commercial engine, supporting the Microsoft Commercial Business, Microsoft Elevate, the Deal Desk, and thousands of customer and partner interactions every year.

The Legal Engineer is the technical builder and operator behind that work. Reporting to the Director, AI Operations, you will play a vital role in driving the AI transformation of this critical function in the company.

This is a role for a builder. You will ship real capability rather than advise from the sidelines, partner directly with engineering, and stay close enough to attorneys and paralegals to design with them rather than for them. You will have room to shape the model while it is still taking form, and the work you do here will help set the standard for how legal teams at Microsoft adopt AI.

Responsibilities
Data, Insight, and Transparency

You will build the intelligence layer that shows CELA CPS what its AI investments are actually delivering. Working alongside engineering, you will turn platform and connected-service data into a standing view of adoption, throughput, system health, and emerging trends, so that leadership questions are answered from a system that already exists rather than a scramble. Over time you will shape which data CPS builds against, and the picture you create will guide where the organization invests next.

Platform Reliability and Trust

Confidence in the platform is what makes adoption possible, and you will own it. You will partner with engineering to keep the CPS technology stack healthy and improving, turning issues, updates, and releases into a smooth experience for the attorneys and paralegals who depend on it every day. As the platform matures, you will help move the model from reacting to problems toward anticipating them, so reliability rises even as the footprint grows.

AI Capability and First-Party Innovation

This is where CPS extends what the platform can do. You will create the agents, Scout capability, Copilot and other AI solution prompts that open new scenarios for the business. This includes driving the wider integration of Microsoft's first-party AI. You will bring rigor to how prompts and agents are developed, so that what works for one team becomes a durable, reusable asset for all of CPS.

Workflow Innovation and Enablement

Technology matters once people use it, and you will be the reason they do. You will work alongside attorneys and other legal professionals to reimagine how legal work moves through CPS, translating what you learn into platform requirements and into training that builds genuine fluency. Partnering with various champ communities, you will grow a population of confident AI users that is necessary to support 100,000+ clients worldwide.

Culture
  • Embody our culture and values.
  • Foster inclusive practices and ensure diverse perspectives are heard.
  • Support colleagues and clients with empathy and respect.
  • Embrace a global mindset, respecting similarities and differences in others.


Qualifications
Required Qualifications
  • Juris Doctor Degree or international equivalent degree AND 6+ years experience as a practicing attorney OR equivalent experience.
  • Active license to practice law in a jurisdiction and capable of meeting admission requirements in relevant jurisdiction.


Preferred Qualifications
  • Juris Doctor Degree or international equivalent degree AND 7+ years experience as a practicing attorney OR equivalent experience.
  • 5+ years experience as an attorney in specialized practice area (e.g., tax, employment, copyright).
  • 3+ years in-house counsel experience.
  • 5+ years of experience in legal technology, legal operations, or a technical delivery role in a regulated or professional-services environment.
  • Hands-on experience building on a CRM or matter-management platform, ideally Microsoft Dynamics 365, including configuration and customization rather than administration alone.
  • Demonstrated ability to work data end to end: extract it, build reporting on it, and explain what it means to a non-technical audience.
  • Experience owning production support, including bug triage with an engineering team, incident response, and release management.
  • Practical experience building with AI tools, including agents and prompt development, and the judgment to know when a prompt is not the right answer.
  • Ability to work directly with attorneys and paralegals and translate their needs into technical requirements.
  • Familiarity with Microsoft's commercial and legal infrastructure (MCAPS, CPS, CELA).
  • Hands-on experience with AI legal tools such as Harvey or Copilot.
  • Experience with the Power Platform, including Power BI reporting and low-code automation.
  • Fluency in legal operations concepts: matter management, outside-counsel governance, paralegal-support models, and client intake.
  • Experience designing and delivering training for a professional user population.


Legal Counsel IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $147,000 - $258,000 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 $185,900 - $278,900 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.

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
NASDAQ

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