Principal Software Engineering Architect

Overview Step into a role where your ideas spark innovation and your impact is demonstrated every day. As a Principal Software Engineering Architect on the Microsoft Digital team, you will be at the forefront of digital transformation, building and shaping the future of end-user productivity for one of the most dynamic and influential organizations in the world. In this role, you will lead the design and development of core network management and operations architecture for one of the largest and most complex enterprise networks globally, leveraging the latest advances in artificial intelligence, driving AI-powered operations, and enabling the organization's transition to an agentic, Frontier Firm model.

You will architect scalable solutions that drive 99.99% reliability and empower seamless enterprise collaboration, while reimagining operations through intelligent automation, agent-driven workflows, and data-informed decisioning at massive global scale. Your experience will directly allow Microsoft Digital to remain an innovation leader, driving impactful transformation and showcasing blueprints that inspire customers and partners navigating their digital journeys. At Microsoft, our mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more guides how we partner with customers to deliver trusted, impactful solutions.

With a growth‑mindset culture, we innovate responsibly and measure success by shared progress, people, teams, and customers. Join us to do meaningful work that changes the world and helps shape what's next for everyone. Responsibilities
* Partner with stakeholders to define user requirements across key scenarios, with an emphasis on AI-driven operations, intelligent automation, and agent-enabled user experiences.
* Lead the identification of dependencies and drive the development of design documents for a product, application, service, or platform, incorporating AI-first and agentic architectures that enable autonomous operations and continuous optimization.
* Mentor others to write and review high-quality, maintainable, and extensible code, while embedding AI-assisted development practices and enabling engineers to effectively leverage copilots and intelligent agents.
* Collaborate with cross-functional teams to drive project plans, release plans, and execution, integrating AI-powered insights and agent-driven workflows to accelerate delivery and improve decision making.
* Take end-to-end ownership of services as a Designated Responsible Individual (DRI), including on-call responsibilities, while advancing autonomous operations through agent-based monitoring, incident detection, and response to improve reliability and resilience
* Continuously learn and apply new technologies and best practices to improve availability, scalability, and operational excellence, driving adoption of AI-driven observability, predictive insights, and self-healing systems at scale.
* Embody our culture and values. 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.

Preferred Qualifications
* 5+ years of experience designing and operating large-scale enterprise services, including production systems.
* Experience building and operating large-scale infrastructure and network management systems.
* Experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools (e.g., Terraform, ARM, Cloud Formation) to automate deployment and configuration.
* Experience designing resilient, secure, and highly available architectures in cloud or hybrid environments.
* Experience applying AI/ML or generative AI technologies (e.g., LLMs) to real-world engineering problems.
* Experience building solutions from concept to production.
* Experience improving monitoring, observability, and incident response for mission-critical systems. Software Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $ - $ 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 $ - $ 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,…