Microsoft

Principal Software Engineer

Microsoft • $142K — $274K *
Redmond, WA 98052In-Person
Information Technology
5 - 7 years of experience
Today
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Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related field with 6+ years of technical engineering experience in languages like C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
  • Hands-on experience in building and delivering LLM-powered applications or agents
  • Solid fundamentals in software engineering, including coding, debugging, and automated testing
  • Experience designing and operating distributed systems or cloud services
  • Demonstrated technical leadership across teams with a focus on architecture and mentoring
  • Experience with multi-agent coordination and durable workflow execution

Responsibilities

  • Build agents that carry authorized work from intent and design through implementation and testing.
  • Design orchestration, tool interfaces, and context retrieval for CI pipelines and test systems.
  • Create evaluations and regression tests for LLM and agents, balancing quality and cost.
  • Implement secure execution with scoped permissions and human review before acceptance of changes.
  • Deliver across teams by validating and adopting workflows while connecting usage to productivity outcomes.
  • Set technical direction by solving ambiguous problems and mentoring engineers.

Benefits

  • Health, dental, and vision insurance
  • Retirement savings plan with company matching
  • Flexible work arrangements and paid time off
  • Professional development opportunities and training
  • Paid parental leave
  • Employee assistance programs and wellness initiatives
Full Job Description
Overview

Help engineers deliver better software with less repetitive work through AI. As a Principal Software Engineer on the EPICS team that is part of the Agent 365 Foundations organization, you will build LLM-powered agents that translate engineering intent into tested, reviewable changes. You will remain hands-on in design, coding, and debugging while shaping technical direction across teams and making agentic workflows reliable, secure, and useful in day-to-day engineering. This individual-contributor role combines deep AI application engineering with practical judgment about what to automate and where people must remain in control.

Success is measured by verified engineering outcomes-not simply by the volume of generated code. You will help define and track validated task completion, review usefulness, human intervention and rework, cycle time, defect rates, and cost per verified outcome.

Responsibilities

  • Build agents that carry authorized work from intent and design through implementation, test execution, code review, and remediation. Produce pull requests with attributable changes and evidence of what was checked, what passed, and what still needs review.
  • Design orchestration, tool interfaces, and context retrieval around real repositories, build and test systems, and CI pipelines. Use durable state and explicit ownership so interrupted work can resume and handoffs are recoverable.
  • Create LLM and agent evaluations and regression tests grounded in engineering tasks. Debug failures across models, prompts, context, and tools; use results to qualify changes and balance quality, reliability, latency, and cost.
  • Build secure, bounded execution with scoped permissions, explicit approval for privileged actions, and human review before changes are accepted. Make agent actions observable and attributable, with clear stop conditions when authorization or evidence is insufficient.
  • Deliver across teams from early validation to adoption. Align interfaces, dependencies, and ownership; learn from engineers using the workflows, compare against meaningful baselines, and connect usage to verified productivity and quality outcomes.
  • Set technical direction and turn ambiguous problems into achievable milestones. Write and review high-quality code and tests, simplify architecture, and mentor engineers through design, debugging, and delivery.


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.


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:

  • 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.
  • Hands-on experience building and delivering LLM-powered applications or agents that use tools and execute multi-step workflows, beyond personal use of AI coding assistants.
  • Solid software engineering fundamentals, including hands-on coding, debugging, and automated testing, with sound judgment about abstractions, interfaces, and maintainability.
  • Experience designing and operating distributed systems or cloud services, including state management, observability, security, reliability, and recovery from partial failures.
  • Ability to evaluate and improve agent behavior using task-level tests, traces, and failure analysis, and to distinguish plausible model output from correct, reproducible engineering results.
  • Demonstrated principal-level technical leadership across teams, including shaping architecture, aligning delivery, influencing decisions without direct authority, and mentoring engineers through hands-on work.
  • Experience with multi-agent coordination, durable workflow execution, or recovery from interrupted and partially completed agent tasks.
  • Depth in repository-aware context retrieval, code understanding, model routing, or fallback strategies, including trade-offs among quality, latency, reliability, and cost.
  • Experience building developer tools, repository services, build and test infrastructure, CI integrations, automated code review, or repair workflows used by engineering teams.
  • Experience with extensibility frameworks, plugin architectures, protocol design, declarative programming models, or manifest-driven extensibility.
  • Experience with Microsoft Copilot, Azure AI, or similar agentic platforms.
  • Experience scaling adoption of AI-powered engineering workflows and designing evaluations or experiments that connect agent use to measurable engineering outcomes.

#CAP #Agent365 #A365

Software Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142,800 - $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

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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Join Microsoft today and be part of a company that values innovation, leadership, and diversity in its workforce. As a global leader in technology and digital transformation, Microsoft offers unparalleled job opportunities that propel your career to new heights.

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Career growth at Microsoft is about more than climbing the corporate ladder; it's about continuous learning, expanding your skills, and improving your capabilities. With access to various leadership and training programs, you can evolve as a professional and make a significant impact within the company and on the global stage.

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Our hiring process is designed to identify true potential. Starting with a review of your resume, followed by interviews that assess your problem-solving abilities and cultural fit, we ensure that all candidates have a fair chance to demonstrate their strengths and potential to contribute to our team.

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Join Our Team

If you're ready to take on exciting challenges and make a difference in the world of technology, explore the job opportunities at Microsoft. Search for open positions that match your skills and interests, and prepare to embark on a rewarding career path filled with innovation and opportunities for personal and professional growth.

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At Microsoft, your future is limitless. Join us in our mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Your journey with Microsoft starts here.
Learn more about Microsoft
Size
181,000 employees
Market Cap
$1,762.4 billion
Industry
Enterprise Technology
Net Income
$51.3 billion
Founded
1975
5 Year Trend
+15.5%
Revenue
$153.2 billion
NASDAQ
MSFT
* Ladders Estimates

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