Principal Research Software Engineer

Microsoft Corporation

Redmond, WA

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JOB DETAILS

SALARY

$142,800–$274,800 Per Year

SKILLS

Application Programming Interface (API), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Artificial Intelligence (AI) Agents, Best Practices, Building Systems, C Programming Language, C++ Programming Language, Cloud Computing, Computer Science, Cross-Functional, Data Management, Data Modeling, Debugging Skills, Documentation, Engineering, Establish Priorities, Health Economics, Java, JavaScript, Machine Learning, Mathematics, Mentoring, Microsoft C# (C Sharp), Microsoft Product Family, Microsoft Windows Azure, Modeling Languages, Open Source, Operations Research, Patents, Power Amplifier, Privacy Controls, Product Engineering, Programming Tools, Prototyping, Python Programming/Scripting Language, Rust Programming Language, Software Engineering, Software Evaluation, System Integration (SI), Technical Leadership, Technical Recruiting, Testing, Theater Production, User Interface/Experience (UI/UX)

LOCATION

Redmond, WA

POSTED

30+ days ago

**Overview** Microsoft Research (MSR) is a multidisciplinary global organization creating scientific knowledge and delivering innovation for positive human impact at scale. We work with scientific, engineering, academic, and business partners to apply machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to advance economics, health, and society. The Microsoft Research Americas Engineering team is hiring a Principal Research Software Engineer to provide technical leadership and direct technical contribution as an individual contributor on the AI Agentic Core Team. Our mission is to accelerate the path from research to product by building AI-driven systems, workflows, and platforms that help researchers and product teams move faster from exploration to real-world impact. In this role, you will collaborate with engineers, researchers, and product teams to build high-impact systems spanning early-stage prototypes through production-ready tools, services, and experiences, while modernizing how we design, build, evaluate, and ship software across Microsoft Research Americas and beyond. This role is well suited for engineers who enjoy moving across layers-from product experiences and services to data, cloud infrastructure, and AI-enabled workflows-and who are energized by applying AI to real engineering and product problems. Deep expertise in how models work is valuable but not required to be effective in this role. At Microsoft, our mission-to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more-guides how we partner with customers to deliver trusted, impactful solutions. With a growth mindset culture, we innovate responsibly and measure success by shared progress-people, teams, and customers. Join us to do meaningful work that changes the world and helps shape what's next for everyone. **Responsibilities** **Research-to-Product Engineering & Technical Leadership** + Design, develop, and ship systems that transition Microsoft Research (MSR) concepts into production-quality tools, services, and product capabilities, owning the end-to-end engineering lifecycle from prototype to scalable, maintainable software. + Build robust solutions spanning product experiences, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), data pipelines, model integration layers, and cloud infrastructure that connect research prototypes to real product environments. + Partner with MSR researchers and Microsoft product teams to align engineering efforts with research priorities, identifying reusable components and shared architectures that amplify impact across projects and labs. + Provide technical direction, mentor engineers, and guide architecture and design decisions, upholding best practices for code quality, security, privacy, testing, observability, and reproducibility. + Help shape the team's engineering culture, long-term strategy, and adoption of modern AI-driven engineering practices. **AI Agentic Systems & Accelerated Research Pipeline** + Define and implement AI-driven processes that accelerate how research moves into products, applying Large Language Models (LLMs), agentic workflows, and modern developer tooling to improve experimentation, implementation, testing, evaluation, documentation, and iterative refinement. + Design and integrate agentic AI frameworks and LLM-based pipelines into research tools and engineering workflows, building systems that coordinate AI agents for complex tasks such as code generation, evaluation, debugging, and refinement. + Develop tool-use and function-calling architectures that enable AI systems to interact with codebases, APIs, and data sources. + Apply modern AI engineering practices-including prompt design, retrieval-augmented generation, and evaluation frameworks. + Contribute to model experimentation and adaptation, such as fine-tuning, where appropriate to the project. **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, Python, Rust, C++, C#, C, Java, JavaScript + OR equivalent experience. **Preferred Qualifications** + Master's Degree or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Operations Research, Applied Mathematics, or a related field AND 10+ years of technical engineering experience + OR Bachelor's Degree AND 12+ years of equivalent experience + OR equivalent experience. + Experience applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Machine Learning (ML) to real systems, products, or engineering workflows, with working knowledge of how modern models are trained, adapted, evaluated, optimized, or deployed, and the curiosity and ability to learn quickly across unfamiliar domains. + Familiarity with several of the following: agentic AI frameworks, tool use and function calling, prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation, evaluation frameworks, model fine-tuning or post-training, observability, and AI-assisted code generation. + Demonstrated engineering fundamentals and broad technical range, with experience designing, building, and shipping software systems, taking ambiguous, early-stage ideas from prototypes through production across layers such as user-facing experiences, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and services, data workflows, cloud systems, and model integration. + Experience providing technical leadership across cross-functional efforts-defining direction, mentoring engineers, and driving execution on complex projects-and building systems that balance speed of experimentation with production requirements such as reliability, security, privacy, and maintainability. + Proficiency with a major cloud and AI platform stack; experience with Azure, Azure AI services, and Copilot-based tools. + Contributions to research papers, patents, or open-source projects at the intersection of engineering and research. \#Research #MSRR Software Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142,800.00 - $274,800.00 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 $188,000.00 - $304,200.00 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. Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations. (https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/accessibility.html)

About the Company

Microsoft Corporation

DO WHAT YOU LOVE
Make your mark on the world’s most used technologies. Develop the next hit mobile application. Pioneer a startup that could be the next big thing. At Microsoft, you choose your path.

Headquartered in Redmond, Washington, Microsoft is a top innovator in both the consumer and enterprise technology industry. Just a few of the many things our products do are unleash creativity, connect businesses, and make learning more fun. But our continued success is based on one thing: our employees. We hire amazing, talented people and give them the opportunities—and the tools—to succeed.

WHY MICROSOFT?
As a Microsoft employee, you’re surrounded by a diverse group of the smartest people in your field. This fosters new ideas, better business results, and creates a dynamic work environment. In the office, you’re constantly challenged and supported by your colleagues. Every day holds something new and exciting.

We also offer unparalleled depth and breadth of career opportunities. As an industry leader in multiple fields, working for Microsoft means being able to do whatever you feel passionate about—and being able to make an impact in that field. From day one, we give our employees significant responsibility. This means that you’ll know that you directly contributed to something that has a positive impact on people worldwide. Whether you choose to work in management, dive deep into the newest technology, or explore multiple professions, you’ll find everything you need at Microsoft to drive your career—and to make a difference.

WE GET IT – YOU’RE MORE THAN YOUR JOB
Everyone works differently and is motivated by different things. We also understand that there’s more to you than your job. That’s why we offer competitive pay and a wide assortment of benefits-- to help you make the most of life at work and away from it.

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COMPANY SIZE

10,000 employees or more

INDUSTRY

Other/Not Classified

FOUNDED

1975

WEBSITE

http://www.microsoft.com

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