Principal Software Engineer - Microsoft Digital

Microsoft Digital (MSD) builds and manages the critical products and services that Microsoft runs on. We boldly pursue big ideas that power transformational advances at Microsoft and for our customers, while helping Microsoft teams work smarter, faster, and more securely every day. Microsoft Digital employees have deep technical and business expertise, customer insights, and a clear point of view that comes from first-hand, large-scale experience with Microsoft and industry solutions. We are engineers, technology leaders and experts, digital transformation change agents, and customer advocates.

Within Microsoft Digital, Corporate Functions Team builds and manages integrated legal, digital workplace, and operational platforms that power Microsoft’s employee and enterprise experiences. This includes services across campus operations, workplace services, immigration, contracts, litigation, eDiscovery, nonprofits, Elevate, and legal operations.

These are enterprise-grade internal platforms, with high-trust security and compliance expectations, live-site and QoS rigor, and an AI-first mandate to transform how work gets done.

We have exciting opportunities for you to innovate, influence, transform, inspire, and grow within our organization and we encourage you to apply to learn more!

Be the person who connects business problems to the right technology solution — whether that means building, adopting a Microsoft 1P product, or buying 3P. This role keeps Corporate Functions ahead of the curve: scanning industry solutions, setting technical direction across our agentic-AI transformation, and owning the relationships with Microsoft 1P product teams so our platform needs are represented and met.

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.

Responsibilities

Key Responsibilities

• Business-to-tech translation. Partner with PM and business-ops leaders across GWS and CELA to turn ambiguous business problems into clear solution approaches with a defensible build-vs-buy-vs-adopt recommendation.
• Technical direction & foresight. Continuously scan industry and internal Microsoft solutions (AI/agentic platforms, workplace tech, legal/CLM, eDiscovery) and advise where Corporate Functions should place its bets to stay ahead.
• 1P product partnership. Own the relationships with Microsoft first-party product teams (Copilot, M365, Azure AI, Dynamics, etc.), representing our requirements, influencing roadmaps, and unblocking dependencies.
• Build-vs-buy stewardship. Bring rigor and honesty to make-vs-buy decisions; be willing and able to say, "dont build this" and route to a 1P or 3P solution when that serves the business better.
• Architecture across domains. Provide cross-cutting architectural guidance spanning workplace operations (GWS) and legal/immigration/contracts (CELA), ensuring coherence, reuse, and a common technical foundation as the two orgs converge.
• Agentic-AI leadership. Shape the reference architecture for our agentic services and AI-native engineering direction, in partnership with the SWE managers and Engineering Excellence.

What Success Looks Like (First 6–12 Months)

• A clear, socialized technical direction and reference architecture for Corporate Functions agentic bets.
• Documented build-vs-buy framework applied to at least the top strategic programs.
• Established, active relationships with the key 1P product teams our roadmap depends on.
• At least one significant "adopt/buy instead of build" decision that saves cost or accelerates delivery.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelors 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.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Masters 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 Bachelors 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 experience as a technology or solution architect, setting technical direction for enterprise-scale platforms, with focus on security and scale.
• 3+ years of architecting and/or building enterprise-scale Agentic platforms.
• Prior depth in at least one of the domains – digital workplace or legal tech, along with the appetite to master unfamiliar domains.
• Experience in Demonstrated build-vs-buy judgment. Ability to no to building and ground to the business outcomes.
• Track record influencing product/partner teams without formal authority; credible in senior technical rooms.
• Strong grounding in AI/agentic architecture and modern cloud (Azure) patterns.
• Gravitas to challenge and align senior engineering managers on technical direction.

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.