Microsoft

Principal Solution Engineer - Software Development & Platform

Microsoft$130K — $251K *
Enterprise Technology
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, IT, Engineering, or related field AND 6+ years of technical pre-sales or consulting experience OR equivalent.
  • 6+ years in application development, cloud architecture, or software engineering.
  • 5+ years customer-facing experience with software development organizations.
  • Experience designing/building/supporting applications on cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP).
  • Familiarity with modern software practices, including APIs, microservices, and AI application development.
  • Strong problem-solving and communication skills for engaging with technical and executive audiences.
  • Experience working with ISVs or SaaS providers and knowledge of software monetization.

Responsibilities

  • Build relationships with CTOs and technical decision-makers.
  • Act as a technical advisor through the customer lifecycle on Azure solutions.
  • Provide customer feedback and insights to Microsoft engineering teams.
  • Lead cloud-native application design and development.
  • Conduct architectural design sessions and workshops on modernization and AI.
  • Help customers optimize performance and operational excellence of their applications.
  • Support software companies in publishing solutions on Microsoft Marketplace.

Benefits

  • Access to continuous learning and skill adaptation opportunities.
  • Ability to work on cutting-edge technologies and platforms.
  • Engagement in innovative projects involving AI and cloud solutions.
  • Collaboration with engineering and product teams at Microsoft.
  • Opportunity to influence customer success and satisfaction directly.
Full Job Description
Overview

As a Solution Engineer, you will serve as a trusted technical advisor to software companies throughout their cloud and AI journey. You will work directly with engineering leaders, architects, product teams, and technical decision-makers to design cloud-native applications, accelerate AI innovation, modernize architectures, and optimize workloads on Azure. You will help customers build differentiated solutions on Microsoft's platform while enabling go-to-market success through commercial marketplace, Azure consumption growth, and scalable customer support models.

This role combines deep technical expertise with business impact, helping customers transform their applications into secure, scalable, AI-powered solutions that create value for both their business and their end customers.

Responsibilities

Customer & Technical Leadership

  • Build trusted relationships with Chief Technology Officers (CTOs), engineering leaders, architects, and technical decision-makers at Independent Software Vendor (ISV) and software development companies.


  • Act as a technical advisor throughout the customer lifecycle, helping customers architect, build, deploy, and operate solutions on Azure.


  • Serve as the Voice of the Customer (VoC) by sharing technical insights, product feedback, and blockers with Microsoft engineering and product teams.


Application Development & Modernization

  • Help customers design and develop cloud-native applications leveraging Azure services, platform capabilities, and AI technologies.


Technical Solutions

  • Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)


  • Azure App Service


  • Azure Container Apps


  • Azure API Management


  • Azure Functions


Lead architectural design sessions and technical workshops focused on application modernization, microservices, containers, Kubernetes, APIs, data platforms, and AI-enabled applications.

Guide customers in adopting Azure Well-Architected Framework and Cloud Adoption Framework best practices to create secure, scalable, resilient, and cost-efficient solutions.

Support customers in modernizing legacy applications and transitioning workloads to cloud-native architectures.

AI & Platform Innovation

Help customers build and deploy AI-powered applications using Azure AI services, Azure OpenAI, data platforms, and intelligent application patterns.

Technical Solutions

  • Azure AI Foundry


  • Azure OpenAI Service


  • Azure AI Search


  • Azure Machine Learning


  • GitHub Copilot Enterprise


Drive conversations around platform engineering, developer productivity, DevOps, GitHub, automation, observability, and AI-powered software development.

Identify opportunities where Azure and AI can accelerate customer innovation and create competitive differentiation.

Customer Success & Growth

  • Enable customers to successfully launch, scale, and support applications running on Azure.


  • Remove technical blockers and accelerate projects from design through production deployment.


  • Help customers optimize application performance, reliability, security, and operational excellence.


  • Contribute to customer success plans and technical roadmaps that drive Azure adoption and business outcomes.


Ecosystem & Marketplace Enablement

  • Enable software companies to publish, distribute, and monetize their solutions through the Microsoft Commercial Marketplace.


  • Help customers align technical architecture with marketplace and go-to-market requirements.


  • Support ISVs in delivering successful customer experience and scalable support operations for solutions built on Azure.


Innovation & Continuous Learning

  • Maintain expertise across Azure, AI, application development, cloud-native technologies, and emerging platform capabilities.


  • Share technical best practices, reusable intellectual property, and customer success patterns across the team.


  • Continuously adapt skills to evolving customer needs and technology trends.


Qualifications

Required/minimum qualifications

  • Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering or related field AND 6+ years technical pre-sales or technical consulting experience OR equivalent experience.


Additional or preferred qualifications
  • 6+ years of experience in application development, cloud architecture, software engineering, solution engineering, technical consulting, or related fields.
  • 5+ years of customer-facing experience working directly with software development organizations, engineering teams, or technical decision-makers.
  • Experience designing, building, or supporting applications on Microsoft Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
  • Experience with modern software development practices including APIs, microservices, containers, Kubernetes, CI/CD, DevOps, cloud-native architectures, and AI application development.
  • Effective problem-solving, architectural design, and technical consulting skills with the ability to communicate effectively with both executive and technical audiences.
  • Experience working with ISVs, SaaS providers, or software companies, or AI-first/cloud-native organizations.
  • Experience with Azure AI Services, Azure OpenAI, GitHub, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), and platform engineering practices.
  • Experience supporting commercial software products and customer-facing applications at scale.
  • Knowledge of Microsoft Commercial Marketplace and software monetization models.
  • Azure certifications and/or software development certifications.
  • Experience helping customers bring applications from concept to production deployment.


Digital Solution Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $130,900 - $251,900 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 $165,600 - $272,300 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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