Software Engineer II - AI Infrastructure

Job ID: 200057843Posted: 2026-09-24Location: United States, Washington, RedmondSalary: USD $102,100 - $202,200 per yearEmployment type: Full-TimeWork site: 3 days / week in-officeRole type: Individual ContributorTravel: Less than 25%Profession: Software EngineeringDiscipline: Software EngineeringCompany: MicrosoftOverviewTeam PurposeThe future of AI and cloud computing depends on highly reliable, scalable, and efficient distributed systems, and our team is building the platform that powers that future.As part of the AI Infra team, you will work on large-scale infrastructure that supports some of the world's most demanding cloud services and AI workloads. The infrastructure you will work on powers OpenAI and OSS model hosting, large-scale inferencing, and the backend for Microsoft Copilots — across the largest capacity fleets in the industry. You will help design and build foundational systems that enable reliability, performance, and operational excellence at global scale.Role SummaryAs a Software Engineer II, you will design, develop, and operate distributed systems that power mission-critical cloud services. You will collaborate across engineering disciplines to build resilient, scalable, and highly available platforms, leveraging strong software engineering fundamentals and data-driven decision making. You will contribute throughout the software development lifecycle, from architecture and implementation to deployment, monitoring, and continuous improvement.This opportunity will allow you to:- Accelerate your technical and career growth by solving complex distributed systems challenges at cloud scale.- Develop deep expertise in large-scale infrastructure, reliability engineering, system architecture, and operational excellence.- Hone your collaboration and leadership skills while working across teams to deliver high-impact solutions that serve millions of users and workloads.Microsoft CultureMicrosoft'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 beyondResponsibilitiesResponsibilities- Design, develop, test, deploy, and operate large-scale distributed systems and platform services that deliver reliable, scalable, secure, and high-performance experiences.- Build and enhance infrastructure capabilities, resource management services, and workload orchestration solutions that optimize system efficiency, utilization, availability, and performance.- Develop software and platform features that support capacity management, service scalability, policy-driven decision making, workload placement, prioritization, and operational flexibility across distributed environments.- Collaborate with engineers, product stakeholders, and cross-functional partners to define technical requirements, influence architecture decisions, and deliver high-quality solutions that address customer and business needs.- Develop, test, and maintain control plane services written in C#, hosted on Kubernetes (AKS) clusters.  .- Analyze complex production issues, identify root causes, and implement sustainable solutions that enhance scalability, maintainability, efficiency, and service health. Provide operational support and DRI (on-call) responsibilities for the service. - Contribute to engineering best practices through technical design reviews, code quality initiatives, knowledge sharing, mentorship, and a culture of innovation, accountability, inclusion, and continuous learning.QualificationsRequired Qualifications: Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 2+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or PythonOR equivalent experience. Preferred Qualifications: 'Master's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 3+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or PythonOR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 5+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or PythonOR equivalent experience. OOP (Object Oriented Programming) proficiency and practical familiarity with common code design patterns 2+ years of experience with service development in a distributed environment, in a dev-ops role, including concurrency management and stateful resource management Hands-on experience with public cloud services at the IaaS level #AIINFRASoftware Engineering IC3 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $102,100 - $202,200 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 $133,800 - $219,200 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.