Principal Software Engineer
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Oct 6, 2026. First seen by Alion on Jul 23, 2026. Microsoft scores B on the Alion truth index.
Are you passionate about architecting, building, and maintaining next-generation platforms for real-time data delivery that power Microsoft’s multi-billion-dollar advertising business? On our team, you’ll design and evolve complex systems, apply AI and next-gen technologies to solve modern engineering challenges, and collaborate with Ads and Bing teams to enable new scenarios. We’re a fast-paced, inclusive team that values innovation, learning, and impact. If you’re self-driven and excited to tackle deep technical problems at scale while shaping the future of intelligent, next-gen platforms, we’d love to work with you.
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.
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.
Responsibilities
- Define and drive the technical vision and architecture for large-scale, complex systems, ensuring scalability, reliability, security, and cost efficiency.
- Hands-on, contributing to core code, complex implementations, and production issue resolution.
- Influence and align multiple teams and stakeholders across organizations through solid technical leadership.
- Partner with Product Management and leadership to translate business goals into robust technical solutions.
- Mentor engineers, raise the technical bar, and promote a culture of engineering excellence.
- Use AI tools and techniques to enhance engineering workflows, automate processes, and unlock new capabilities.
- Continuously refine data pipelines and system architecture to improve performance, reliability, and cost efficiency.
- Collaborate with Ads and Bing teams to enable new scenarios, integrate shared infrastructure, and deliver unified solutions.
- Provide production support by fixing bugs and resolving live-site issues to ensure system availability and reliability.
Qualifications
Required/Minimum Qualifications:
- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 10+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python OR equivalent experience.
- Solid SQL expertise, Kafka, Hadoop, Hive and product development experience including memory management, multithreading, and performance optimization, cloud expertise, AI.
- Proven experience designing and operating distributed, cloud-based systems at scale.
- Ability to influence without authority and drive alignment across multiple teams.
- Solid expertise in system architecture, data structures, algorithms, and software design patterns.
- Experience with microservices, data pipelines, or large data systems.
- Experience with CI/CD pipelines, version control systems (e.g., Git), and build tools
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience with AdTech is a big plus.
- Experience building high-throughput, low-latency, or mission-critical services.
- Deep knowledge of Azure or other hyperscale cloud platforms.
- Experience with data-intensive systems, machine learning platforms, or large marketplaces.
- Track record of leading major architectural initiatives or platform transformations.
- Solid written and verbal communication skills, including technical design documentation.
- A collaborative team player with curiosity, a growth mindset, and a solid sense of responsibility
- Exposure to AI/ML concepts and practical application of AI tools to solve modern engineering challenges.
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.
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.