Principal Software Engineer

Technology, Data & Digital · Software & Web Development · Software Engineering · Artificial Intelligence · Cybersecurity

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In short

We are seeking a Principal Software Engineer to provide technical leadership for the Perception Platform, focusing on Generative AI, RAG, memory, reasoning, and agentic systems. You will define architecture and engineering strategy for sophisticated AI and distributed cloud platforms within Microsoft Security. This role requires deep expertise in distributed systems, AI systems architecture, and security-sensitive enterprise environments.

Responsibilities

Define architecture and long-term technical strategy for enterprise AI platform capabilities.
Architect production-grade AI and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems.
Design enterprise AI memory and knowledge architectures.
Architect agentic and multi-agent AI systems.
Define identity, authentication, and authorization architectures for AI agents.
Establish security, safety, and execution guardrails for AI systems.
Design AI architectures enforcing authorization and trust throughout retrieval and execution.
Establish end-to-end reliability, evaluation, and observability frameworks for distributed AI systems.
Partner across organizations to translate requirements into scalable architectures.
Provide Principal-level technical leadership across Microsoft Security AI platform investments.

Requirements

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 6+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, Go, JavaScript, or Python, OR equivalent experience.
Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements.
Pass the Microsoft background and Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.

Desired Qualifications

Master'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, Go, JavaScript, or Python, OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 12+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, Go, JavaScript, or Python, OR equivalent experience.
Extensive experience architecting, building, and operating large-scale distributed systems, cloud services, enterprise platforms, or AI platforms in production environments.
Deep experience with Generative AI and AI systems architecture, including model orchestration, retrieval/RAG, semantic search, memory, context management, tool use, evaluation, safety, and production operationalization.
Experience designing agentic and multi-agent AI systems.
Experience establishing reusable engineering patterns, frameworks, and platform capabilities for reliable, secure, observable, and scalable AI and agentic systems.
Deep experience designing identity, authentication, and authorization architectures for autonomous or agentic systems.
Expertise in RBAC, policy-based and resource-level authorization, least privilege, scoped permissions, delegated authorization, and multi-tenant isolation.
Demonstrated ability to provide technical leadership across complex, ambiguous initiatives.
Demonstrated technical leadership and communication skills, with experience influencing architectural decisions across organizational boundaries.

Benefits

Eligible for benefits and other compensation.
Find additional benefits and pay information here: https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay

Skills

C++JavaPythonGenerative AIRAGAIRBAC

#AI#Security#Generative AI#RAG#Agentic Systems#Cloud Platforms#Distributed Systems#Software Engineering

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