Microsoft

Principal Software Engineering Manager - Substrate efficiency

Microsoft$150K — $200K *
Information Technology
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related field with 8+ years of technical engineering experience in programming languages like C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python.
  • Master's Degree in Computer Science or related field with 12+ years of technical engineering experience preferred.
  • At least 6 years of people management experience leading engineering teams.
  • Proven experience improving throughput and performance in large-scale systems.
  • Familiarity with AI/ML inference systems and GPU-based workloads.

Responsibilities

  • Build and lead a high-performing engineering team focused on inference runtime efficiency.
  • Define and drive strategy for optimizing throughput per GPU.
  • Increase engineering agility for faster experimentation and performance improvements.
  • Collaborate with internal teams to co-design advanced inference optimizations.
  • Establish metrics and frameworks to assess efficiency gains and guide investment.
  • Own live-site performance and operational excellence for large-scale inference engines.
  • Align with partner teams on performance goals and optimization priorities.

Benefits

  • Opportunity to work with one of the world's largest AI inference platforms.
  • Engagement in high-impact projects shaping Microsoft 365 Copilot experiences.
  • Possibility to drive strategic initiatives within applied AI and machine learning.
  • Access to collaboration with top professionals across multiple teams.
  • Potential for significant influence on improving engine efficiency and reducing operational costs.
Full Job Description
Overview

M365 Copilot inference is a high-impact engineering team advancing applied AI and large-scale machine learning across Microsoft. We design and operate the platform powering Microsoft 365 Copilot experiences, delivering intelligent capabilities to millions of users.

Our team owns one of the world's largest AI inference platforms, operating at massive GPU scale across global datacenters. We build the core LLM API and routing services that enable low-latency, highly available AI experiences, and continuously push the boundaries of performance, scalability, and efficiency.
We are hiring a Principal Software Engineering Manager to lead a strategic initiative focused on maximizing throughput per GPU across the Copilot inference stack. This role is to drive inference engine efficiency by optimizing model execution and runtime performance, improving throughput per GPU, reducing cost per query, and unlocking capacity without additional hardware investment.

Responsibilities

  • Build and lead a high-performing engineering team focused on inference runtime efficiency and model execution performance.
  • Define and drive strategy to improve throughput per GPU through runtime optimizations.
  • Increase engineering agility, enabling faster experimentation, iteration, and rollout of performance improvements.
  • Partner across M365 Core, AI Core, Azure, and Microsoft Research to co-design and productionize advanced inference optimizations.
  • Establish metrics, telemetry, and experimentation frameworks to measure efficiency gains and guide investment decisions.
  • Own live-site performance, reliability, and operational excellence for inference engines at scale.
  • Drive alignment across partner teams on engine interfaces, performance goals, and optimization priorities.


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.


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 12+ 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 15+ 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 people management experience.
  • Experience leading engineering teams building backend or distributed systems.
  • Hands-on experience improving system throughput, performance, and resource utilization across large-scale infrastructure.
  • Systems thinking, with the ability to identify and optimize bottlenecks across execution, scaling, and resource management.
  • Experience driving system-level improvements in areas such as workload execution, scheduling, batching, or infrastructure efficiency.
  • Able to translate technical insights into clear engineering priorities and execution plans.
  • Comfortable collaborating across teams to align on goals and execution.
  • Experience with developing AI/ML inference systems or GPU-based workloads.
  • Familiarity with inference or training runtime optimization techniques.
  • Experience improving throughput per resource (e.g., cost per query) in large-scale systems.


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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