Principal Software Engineer - AI Experiences, Monetization
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Nov 8, 2026. First seen by Alion on Oct 30, 2026. Microsoft scores B on the Alion truth index.
Interested in being part of a team that powers a multi-billion-dollar business and helps shape the future of online advertising? Do you enjoy owning systems end to end, from distributed services and data to APIs and the applications customers use every day? Want to use AI to change how software is built and delivered? If so, we'd love to hear from you.
At Microsoft AI Experiences, Online advertising is one of the fastest-growing businesses on the Internet, and Microsoft Advertising is a leading global platform serving advertisers at massive scale. The Microsoft Advertising Campaign Management team builds and runs the platform that lets advertisers create, manage, analyze and optimize millions of campaigns across Microsoft's advertising ecosystem. That platform includes the services, APIs, data pipelines and web applications behind the advertiser experience.
We are starting a multi-year effort to modernize this platform. The work includes moving to cloud-native services, re-architecting core campaign workflows, adding AI-powered capabilities and improving engineering productivity. As a Principal Software Engineer, you will design and build solutions across every layer of the stack: backend services, APIs, data storage and processing, and the applications built on them. You will partner with engineering, product and design teams to deliver lasting improvements to how advertisers run their business.
The Principal Software Engineer will lead the design and implementation of high-impact features and platform investments, and own them from data model and service design through deployment and live-site operations. You will improve the scalability, reliability, latency and cost efficiency of systems that handle large volumes of advertiser data and transactions. You will also help advance AI-enabled engineering practices that speed up delivery and customer value.
This role suits a hands-on engineer who is comfortable anywhere in the stack, from distributed systems and data to the application layer. It also suits someone who enjoys solving hard technical problems, driving impact through technical leadership and building durable systems used by customers around the world.
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.
AI Experiences employees who live within a 50- mile commute of a designated Microsoft Hub in the U.S. are expected to work from the office at least four days per week. This expectation is subject to local law and may vary by jurisdiction.
Responsibilities
- Design, build and operate scalable backend services and APIs that power campaign management, reporting and optimization workflows.
- Own features end to end across the stack, including data models, storage, service logic, API contracts and the client applications that consume them.
- Design distributed systems for high throughput, low latency, fault tolerance and cost efficiency on cloud infrastructure.
- Build and improve data flows: transactional data stores, caching, asynchronous processing, messaging and integration with upstream and downstream ad platform systems.
- Drive improvements in reliability, performance, security, observability and maintainability across services and applications.
- Lead technical design, architecture reviews and investigations for business-critical features, and influence technical direction within and across teams.
- Own production health for your areas, including monitoring, alerting, capacity planning, incident response and post-incident improvements.
- Partner with product, design and partner engineering teams to turn complex advertiser needs into well-built, end-to-end solutions.
- Advance AI-enabled engineering practices, and help integrate AI capabilities into platform services and advertiser workflows.
- Mentor engineers and raise the technical bar through code reviews, design guidance and knowledge sharing.
- Identify opportunities to modernize legacy systems, reduce complexity and improve customer outcomes.
Qualifications
Required Qualifications:
- 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.
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.
Preferred 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, 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, JavaScript, or Python
- OR equivalent experience.
Software Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142,800 - $274,800 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 $188,000 - $304,200 per year.
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
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.