Principal Software Architect

Overview

Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. We bring a growth mindset to our work, collaborate across teams, and build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture where everyone can thrive.

The Agentic Security Organization is building the next generation of intelligent agent experiences for Microsoft Security. At the center of this work is an Agent Platform that helps teams build and operate AI agents across a broad range of security scenarios, securely, reliably, and at scale.

We are looking for a Principal Software Architect to shape the platform's technical direction and bring its most important capabilities into production. You will define the architecture and engineering patterns that make agents easier to build, safer to operate, and more useful to customers. This is a hands-on leadership role: you will tackle complex design problems, validate critical decisions through implementation, and work across teams to turn rapidly evolving AI technology into dependable experiences at Microsoft scale. Your work will simplify both the developer journey and the customer experience while upholding a high bar for security, performance, and operational excellence.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the technical vision for the Agent Platform, including its core capabilities, interfaces, extensibility model, and end-to-end architecture.
• Architect and help deliver systems that allow AI agents to operate securely and reliably at scale, wit isolation, identity and access controls, observability, resiliency, and operational safeguards.
• Establish reusable patterns for production-grade agents, including orchestration, tool integration, context and state management, evaluation, monitoring, and lifecycle management.
• Simplify the developer experience by abstracting infrastructure complexity and making it easier for teams to build, onboard, test, deploy, and operate agents consistently.
• Shape intuitive, responsive, and trustworthy customer experiences by connecting platform decisions to how people use agent-powered security workflows.
• Partner with engineering, product, security, research, and platform teams to translate emerging AI capabilities and security requirements into practical solutions.
• Lead through technical judgment and influence across teams: identify gaps, guide long-term investments, validate key designs through prototypes and code, and mentor engineers.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelors Degree in Computer Science, or related technical discipline 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.

Additional or Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelors 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 Masters 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.

• 5+ years of experience architecting and delivering large-scale distributed systems or cloud platforms, with judgment across security, reliability, scalability, performance, and operations.

• 5+ years of experience designing developer-facing platforms, APIs, SDKs, or extensible abstractions that simplify infrastructure complexity and help other teams build, deploy, and operate services effectively.

• 3+ years of experience building AI-powered applications or platforms, with an understanding of agent orchestration, tool integration, evaluation, and the security and reliability challenges of production AI systems.

• Demonstrated ability to lead complex designs from concept through production while remaining hands-on with critical technical decisions.

• Demonstrated ability to influence engineering direction across teams, mentor engineers, and connect technical decisions to developer productivity and intuitive, trustworthy customer experiences.

#MSFTSecurity #AgenticSystem #Harness

Software Engineering IC6 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $165,600 - $296,400 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 $220,800 - $331,200 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.

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.