Principal Software Engineer

Overview

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.

The Defender Experts Team within Microsoft Security is building the next generation of AI-powered cybersecurity experiences. Our mission is to help customers detect, investigate, and respond to sophisticated cyber threats by combining advanced security expertise with scalable cloud services, generative AI, and intelligent agentic workflows.

We are looking for a Principal Software Engineer to design and build full-stack capabilities that help transform how security incidents are detected and investigated. You will work across cloud-scale backend services, APIs, large-scale security data, and AI-powered experiences, including LLM-based agents and autonomous workflows. You will tackle complex engineering problems at the intersection of distributed systems, cybersecurity, and generative AI while helping shape the architecture and technical direction of emerging products.

In this role, you will collaborate closely with software engineers, product managers, security researchers, and partner teams across Microsoft Security to turn complex security scenarios into reliable, scalable, and intuitive customer experiences. You will have opportunities to influence technical design, mentor other engineers, and help establish engineering patterns for building secure, production-ready AI capabilities.

Our team brings together people with diverse backgrounds and experiences and fosters a culture of learning, experimentation, and collaboration. If you enjoy solving ambiguous technical problems, building systems at cloud scale, and applying the latest advances in AI to meaningful cybersecurity challenges, we would love to hear from you.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate highly scalable, real-time cloud services and data-processing systems using Azure technologies to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of security analyst workflows.
• Develop AI-powered security capabilities using technologies such as transformer-based models, embeddings, vector stores, large language models (LLMs), and agentic workflows to solve complex security scenarios and expand automation.
• Own features end to end, from architecture and design through implementation, productization, deployment, monitoring, and continuous improvement in production.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to engineers, helping establish engineering optimal practices and fostering a collaborative environment where engineers can grow, innovate, and deliver high-quality solutions.
• Lead and participate in architecture, design, and code reviews, evaluate technical approaches, apply AI-assisted software engineering practices, and improve documentation, tooling, and development practices that increase engineering efficiency and software quality.
• Collaborate across engineering, product, and security disciplines to build capabilities for both Security for AI and AI for Security, improving threat detection, investigation, and response experiences.
• Embody our culture and values.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelors Degree in Computer Science, or related technical discipline AND 6+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C#, Java, C++.
• 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 12+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C#, Java, C++.

• OR 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#, Java, C++.

• OR equivalent experience.

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience designing, building, and delivering high-quality production software.

• 3+ years of experience building cloud services, distributed systems, or AI-powered systems, including experience designing and operating scalable production services.

• Experience building and shipping AI-powered features in production, using technologies such as large language models (LLMs), machine learning models, embeddings, or related AI technologies.

• Experience with machine learning frameworks and libraries, such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, or equivalent technologies.

• Experience collaborating across engineering, product, and other technical disciplines to design and deliver complex software solutions.

#MSFTSecurity

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.

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.