Principal Software Engineer Manager
Technology, Data & Digital · Software & Web Development · Software Engineering · QA & Testing
In short
As a Principal Software Engineer Manager, you will lead the Windows Servicing Delivery Validation organization, defining the strategy for AI-powered validation and managing a high-performing engineering team. You will modernize validation processes, align investments, and partner across organizations to reduce duplication and improve reuse of shared capabilities.
Responsibilities
- Define and drive a strategy to transform existing validation solutions and programs into a cohesive, intelligent, and AI-powered validation ecosystem.
- Reimagine how validation is planned, executed, analyzed, and operationalized across the engineering lifecycle.
- Establish measurable outcomes for engineering confidence, release readiness, risk reduction, coverage effectiveness, quality, speed, and cost efficiency.
- Lead, coach, and develop a healthy, inclusive, high-performing engineering team.
- Build an operating model that combines engineering ownership, domain expertise, platform thinking, and accountable execution.
- Drive development and adoption of AI-powered validation agents, automated investigation capabilities, risk assessment, coverage intelligence, and engineering decision-support systems.
- Apply AI where it improves validation quality, accelerates learning, reduces repetitive manual analysis, identifies coverage gaps, and produces actionable engineering insights.
- Establish evaluation, auditability, responsible AI, human oversight, and quality practices for AI-assisted validation decisions.
- Own the strategy, prioritization, investment roadmap, and operational effectiveness of the validation portfolio across multiple programs, platforms, and engineering scenarios.
- Evaluate existing validation programs and identify opportunities to modernize, consolidate, integrate, scale, or retire solutions.
- Unify validation results, coverage metrics, servicing indicators, security signals, compliance activities, and release-readiness evidence into clearer views of engineering confidence.
- Provide leadership and governance for vendor and contractor-delivered validation programs.
- Partner with finance, procurement, operations, and engineering stakeholders to align external investments with organizational priorities.
- Partner across Windows TSX, Windows Engineering, security, MSRC, servicing, release management, engineering systems, product management, and partner organizations.
- Influence senior technical and business stakeholders, resolve competing priorities, and create shared solutions.
- Establish architecture, software quality, reliability, observability, security, privacy, live-site, and operational readiness practices for validation platforms and services.
- Use telemetry, experimentation, incident learning, and outcome metrics to continuously improve platform health, program execution, and customer impact.
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, JavaScript, or Python.
- OR equivalent experience.
- Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role.
- Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.
Desired Qualifications
- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field AND 10+ years of experience in software development, validation engineering, quality engineering, platform engineering, engineering systems, distributed services, or related technical disciplines OR equivalent experience.
- 4+ years of people-management experience leading software engineers or multidisciplinary engineering teams responsible for production services, platforms, validation systems, engineering infrastructure, or operationally critical programs.
- Experience defining technical strategy and leading complex engineering transformations involving architecture, organizational change, dependency management, and delivery across multiple teams and stakeholder groups.
- Experience designing, building, and operating large-scale software systems, validation platforms, automation frameworks, data pipelines, telemetry systems, or engineering decision-support capabilities.
- Experience leading a portfolio of engineering programs and establishing priorities, execution mechanisms, quality expectations, operational metrics, and accountability for measurable outcomes.
- Experience managing work delivered through vendors, contractors, or external engineering partners, including scope, delivery, quality, performance, risk, and stakeholder alignment.
- Master's Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or a related technical discipline.
- Experience leading software validation, quality engineering, release engineering, security servicing, vulnerability response, certification, compliance-sensitive engineering, or other operationally critical engineering domains.
- Experience transforming fragmented programs or point solutions into shared platforms, reusable services, unified operating models, or portfolio-level capabilities.
- Experience developing or adopting AI-powered engineering workflows, agentic systems, intelligent automation, engineering copilots, automated investigation, or risk-assessment solutions.
- Experience designing coverage measurement, quality analytics, test-to-code mapping, risk intelligence, release-confidence, or engineering-readiness systems.
- Experience applying responsible AI principles, evaluation frameworks, auditability, governance controls, quality measurements, and human-in-the-loop practices to AI-enabled systems.
- Experience managing financial plans, external resources, supplier relationships, or contract execution for a portfolio of engineering programs.
- Demonstrated ability to influence senior leaders and drive technical and organizational alignment across broad engineering ecosystems.
Benefits
- Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation.
- Find additional benefits and pay information here: https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay
Skills
CC++C#JavaJavaScriptPythonAI
#AI#Validation#QualityEngineering#Security#WindowsServicing
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Company
MicrosoftJob Posted
3 weeks ago
Employment Type
Full Time
Work mode
Hybrid
Salary
US$142,800–274,800 · Negotiable
Experience Level
Executive
Locations
United States
Qualification
Bachelor, Master
Applicants
Be an early applicant