Principal Software Engineering Manager - GitHub (CoreAI)

Job ID: 200045438Posted: 2026-09-23Location: United States, California, Mountain ViewSalary: USD $165,600 - $296,400 per yearEmployment type: Full-TimeWork site: 0 days / week in-office – remoteRole type: People ManagerTravel: Less than 25%Profession: Software EngineeringDiscipline: Software EngineeringCompany: MicrosoftOverviewGitHub is looking for a Principal Software Engineering Manager to lead the development of Sandbox that powers agentic workloads across GitHub. As the global home for all developers, GitHub is the complete AI-powered developer platform to build, scale, and deliver secure software. With Sandbox, we’re building and operating secure, isolated cloud environments for agentic workloads. In this model, AI agents work in cloud environments—isolated from developers’ machines and other sessions—where they can run tools, execute commands, and modify files within defined security and policy controls. Offload compute-intensive work, run multiple Copilot tasks in parallel, or continue a session across devices, all without provisioning or managing the underlying infrastructure. Not only does this accelerate engineers’ day-to-day coding, but it also gives Copilot an isolated environment to iterate on and validate generated code. As a Principal Software Engineering Manager, you will lead the team responsible for the continued evolution of Sandbox, helping shape the future of cloud-based development for GitHub and its users. You will drive technical strategy and execution, partner closely with product and engineering teams across GitHub, and help define the future of cloud development environments. You will lead and grow a strong team of engineers building a platform that is secure, reliable, and most of all fun to develop on. The ideal candidate combines strong engineering leadership with deep technical judgment, experience operating large-scale cloud services, and a passion for building developer platforms and experiences that help millions of developers be more productive every day. Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As part of GitHub and CoreAI, we build developer tools that materially improve how software is written, reviewed, and shipped, while maintaining a culture of ownership, rigor, and technical excellence. 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.ResponsibilitiesDrive the engineering roadmap in alignment with product goals, prioritizing investments and adopting new technologies and approaches where they provide meaningful value. Facilitate cross-team collaboration, identify dependencies, and resolve technical and organizational challenges that span teams and services. Build and develop a high-performing engineering team through hiring, coaching, performance management, and career development. Guide the team in making strong architectural and technical decisions, balancing scalability, security, reliability, maintainability, and delivery velocity. Champion experimentation and telemetry-driven development, enabling rapid iteration and data-informed decisions. Drive engineering excellence through automation, tooling, testing, and standardization across development, deployment, and operations. Own operational excellence and reliability practices, including SLOs, incident response, capacity planning, and ensuring post-incident learnings drive systemic improvements. QualificationsRequired QualificationsBachelor'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 RequirementsAbility 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 yearsExperience designing, building, or operating large-scale distributed systems and cloud-based platforms, with a strong understanding of reliability, scalability, and operational excellence. Experience with multi-tenant compute platforms, containers, virtual machines, microVMs, workload orchestration, or similar infrastructure technologies. Experience with security and workload isolation, including safely executing untrusted code, network isolation, secrets management, and defense-in-depth. Experience building platforms that support AI and agentic workloads, including dynamic execution environments, tool use, long-running workloads, and rapidly evolving infrastructure requirements. Experience leading complex, cross-functional engineering initiatives and partnering closely with product, security, and other engineering teams to define technical strategy and deliver high-quality platform capabilities. Software Engineering M6 - 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: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.