Principal Software Engineer - Growth (CoreAI)

Overview

About the Role

• We'rebuildingAIfirst growth and experimentation systemsthat scale across Microsoft. This role is about designing foundational engineeringsystems (instrumentation, experimentation, rollout, and decisioning) that let teams ship, measure, learn fasterwith higher confidence.

• As aPrincipal Growth Engineer inCoreAI,you'lldrive the technical strategy for how wemeasure, experiment, and scaleAI experiences across worldclass products - whileremainingdeep in the details and landing meaningful changes daily.

• At this level, impact comes from buildingrepeatable systemsand raising the engineering bar: better experiment quality, better telemetry, safer rollouts, and clearer business outcomes - delivered through pragmatic execution and deep technical judgment.

AboutCoreAI

• CoreAI- Platform and ToolsisMicrosoft's AIfirst engineering organization, created to build theendtoend Copilot & AI stackpowering products likeGitHub Copilot and Visual Studio Code.

• Our mission is toempower every developer to shape the future with AI, accelerating how AI applications are built, deployed, and improved atglobalscale.

Responsibilities

WhatYou'llDo

• Own growth through engineering excellence and experimentation - at a systems level

• Architect and buildpaved pathsfor online experimentation: standardized metrics, guardrails, analysis workflows, and rollout automation that improve reliability and decision quality across teams

• Lead multiworkstream initiatives that span teams/products (e.g., unified growth measurement, crosssurface funnels, experimentation quality improvements)

• Build and evolve core capabilities:telemetry foundations, experiment assignment/targeting, feature flighting, and risk controls (killswitches, guardrails, progressive delivery)

• Partner with Product, Data Science, Design, and Research to turn ambiguous goals intoshippable, measurable systems

• Stay close to the work: write production code, review designs/PRs, and coach others through architecture and implementation tradeoffs

What We're Looking For

• Proven ability to design and shipsystemic solutions(platforms, frameworks, primitives) that enable multiple teams to move faster - whileremainingdeeply handson and detailoriented

• Software engineering fundamentals with experience building, shipping, and operatingproduction services or client applicationsat scale

• Demonstrated technical leadership acrossarchitecture, service fundamentals, and quality(reliability, performance, operability, security, and maintainability)

• Track recordof translating ambiguous product/business problems intomeasurable engineering outcomes, with clear hypotheses, instrumentation, and decision criteria

• High data aptitude: comfortable with metrics, telemetry, and experimental analysis - and able to raise the bar on experimentation rigor and interpretation

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's 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 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

• 8+ yearsbuilding and shippinghighavailability featuresformultiregion, globally distributed systems(resiliency, failover, capacity planning)

• 4+ years of experience in experimentation with emphasis on quality: guardrails, bias detection, metric integrity, rollout risk management, and enterprise grade experimentation

• Demonstrated experience buildingexperimentation/measurement platforms(feature flags/flighting, assignment, metrics pipelines, analysis tooling) used by multiple teams

• Demonstrated experienceleaning heavily on AI to accelerate engineering velocity, including using AI tools to prototype, implement, debug, and iterate on production systems

• Crossteam influence: you create clarity, align stakeholders, and drive execution across organizational boundaries - without becoming a "piecemover"

Software Engineering IC6 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $163,000 - $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:

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.