Job description

Overview We are seeking a Principal Software Engineer to help redefine how engineering gets done across Windows Silicon and System Integration (WSSI) and demonstrate what agentic engineering can make possible for Windows at scale. The Windows Silicon and System Integration (WSSI) organization delivers a leading integrated silicon + OS platform for the new era of computing. Our work spans new and in-market devices, multiple form factors and silicon partners, and some of the hardest systems challenges in Windows, including performance, power, reliability, compatibility, and overall product quality. We believe agentic AI can fundamentally change how engineers build, validate, debug, and improve complex systems. As a Principal Software Engineer , you will set technical direction for agentic engineering across WSSI while remaining deeply engaged with the technology. You will identify the engineering problems where agents can have the greatest impact, architect and build solutions alongside teams, and take promising ideas from prototype to trusted production workflows. In this role, you will help turn WSSI's most successful agentic capabilities into a compelling technical story: demonstrating what is possible, sharing lessons and reusable approaches, building excitement and credibility with engineering leaders, and establishing WSSI as a source of innovation in agentic engineering across Windows + Devices and Microsoft. As those capabilities mature, you will identify opportunities to extend them to new engineering scenarios and partner organizations, creating new areas where WSSI technology and capabilities can have broader impact. This role therefore sits at the intersection of deep engineering, technical strategy, and organizational influence . You will bring together AI, engineering systems, telemetry, diagnostics, and developer workflows to create closed-loop experiences that help engineers find problems faster, understand root causes, develop solutions, and validate outcomes. At the same time, you will articulate the vision behind that work, engage technical leaders and partner teams, and create momentum around opportunities that can grow from successful WSSI solutions into broader engineering capabilities. This is not a role solely focused on introducing new AI tools. You will instead define how engineering itself evolves as agentic capabilities mature, while also shaping the role WSSI plays in that evolution. You will establish reusable technical patterns, raise the engineering bar for AI-enabled systems, influence teams across organizational boundaries, and build the mechanisms that allow successful approaches to scale while expanding the impact and reach of WSSI's agentic engineering capabilities. 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 • Set the technical vision and multi-year strategy for agentic engineering across WSSI, defining how agents can transform design, implementation, code review, testing, validation, debugging, diagnostics, and release workflows. • Lead from architecture through production. Identify the most impactful engineering problems, establish the technical approach, build critical components where needed, and lead focused cross-functional AI squads from experimentation through evaluation, deployment, adoption, and continuous improvement. • Pioneer closed-loop agentic engineering systems that combine telemetry, engineering data, tools, and reasoning to detect issues, investigate likely causes, automate diagnostic and debugging workflows, propose and implement solutions, and verify outcomes with appropriate human oversight. • Establish the technical architecture for agentic workflows at scale, including reusable approaches for orchestration, context engineering, tool integration, evaluation, observability, reliability, and safe operation in complex engineering environments. • Turn technical breakthroughs into organizational momentum. Build compelling demonstrations and technical narratives around WSSI's agentic capabilities, communicate their impact to engineering and technical leadership, and represent WSSI's work across Windows + Devices and Microsoft. • Create the engineering bar for production AI systems. Define rigorous evaluation methods, quality standards, failure-mode analysis, safeguards, and operational practices that enable teams to move from compelling demos to dependable engineering workflows. • Measure real engineering impact. Establish outcome measures and feedback loops across engineering productivity, product quality, workflow reliability, developer experience, and sustained adoption, using evidence to guide technical investment and continuously improve deployed systems. • Drive technical alignment across organizational boundaries. Build consensus around architecture and engineering standards, influence technical leaders without direct authority, and create durable approaches that teams across WSSI can adopt and extend. • Establish rigorous standards for responsible AI, security, privacy, compliance, and human oversight, ensuring agentic systems earn engineers' trust and can be safely integrated into critical engineering workflows. • Multiply technical capability across WSSI. Mentor engineers and technical leaders, develop communities of practice, share reusable patterns and lessons, and help teams build the technical proficiency to create and operate agentic workflows independently. • Stay ahead of a rapidly evolving field. Maintain deep awareness of relevant industry and research advances, determine which developments matter for WSSI, and translate them into concrete technical recommendations, experiments, and durable engineering improvements. • Identify opportunities to expand WSSI's impact. Recognize where technology, architectures, and workflows developed within WSSI can address broader engineering problems, cultivate partnerships around those opportunities, and help shape new areas of technical investment and ownership. Qualifications Required Qualifications: • Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field AND 8+ years technical experience in software engineering, network engineering, service engineering, or systems engineering • 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. Preferred Qualifications: • Experience using modern AI-assisted engineering tools and capabilities in software development workflows, including one or more of design, coding, testing, validation, diagnostics, debugging, or operations. • Experience leading focused cross-functional teams or AI squads to deliver complex technical initiatives across team or organizational boundaries. • Experience moving agentic projects beyond prototypes into production deployment or sustained multi-team adoption, with measurable improvements in productivity, quality, reliability, or developer experience. • Experience architecting production agentic systems, including orchestration, tool use, prompt and context engineering, retrieval, evaluation, observability, reliability, cost, latency, and integration into existing engineering environments. • Experience delivering telemetry-driven issue detection, validation, automated diagnostics or debugging, code remediation, and closed-loop verification at scale. • Experience in one or more of operating system development, driver development, performance and power analysis, responsible AI, security. #WINDOWS, #W+D, #WSSI 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: careers.microsoft.com 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.

Requirements

Must-haves

Establish rigorous standards for responsible AI, security, privacy, compliance, and human oversight, ensuring agentic systems earn engineers' trust and can be safely integrated into critical engineering workflows.
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.
Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:
This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

Nice-to-haves

Experience using modern AI-assisted engineering tools and capabilities in software development workflows, including one or more of design, coding, testing, validation, diagnostics, debugging, or operations.
Experience leading focused cross-functional teams or AI squads to deliver complex technical initiatives across team or organizational boundaries.
Experience moving agentic projects beyond prototypes into production deployment or sustained multi-team adoption, with measurable improvements in productivity, quality, reliability, or developer experience.
Experience delivering telemetry-driven issue detection, validation, automated diagnostics or debugging, code remediation, and closed-loop verification at scale.
Experience in one or more of operating system development, driver development, performance and power analysis, responsible AI, security.

Application prep

Use the role’s language and application details while tailoring your materials.

Keywords to mirror

Platform: eightfold
Effort: medium

Benefits

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Vision