The CoreAI Apps & Agents team as a part of CoreAI is responsible for building the next generation of AI‑powered developer tools, spanning GitHub Copilot and Visual Studio/VS Code experiences. As a Principal Software Engineer, you will play a critical technical leadership role in shaping AI development systems that help developers understand, navigate, build and evolve large real‑world codebases.

In addition to deep engineering ownership, this role uniquely blends customer‑facing technical engagement with platform design. You will work directly with cloud native and AI first startups to enterprise customers to deploy, customize, and operationalize AI development tools in complex environments—using firsthand customer insight to guide product architecture, feature design, and adoption strategy.

Enterprise deployment & customer engagement:

• Engage directly with a broad spectrum of customers to understand their development environments, constraints, and adoption barriers for AI‑assisted development.
• Partner with customers to deploy, customize, and validate AI developer tools in production settings, including brownfield and regulated codebases.
• Translate customer feedback into concrete technical requirements, design trade‑offs, and roadmap adjustments and disseminate learnings across internal engineering, product, and customer‑facing teams.

AI developer tooling & platform contribution:

• Contribute to the architecture and hands‑on development of AI‑enabled developer tools delivered through GitHub Copilot and Copilot client experiences.
• Design frameworks, APIs, and extensibility mechanisms that enable AI coding agents to reason over existing codebases, perform multi‑step tasks, and integrate into developer workflows.
• Advance state‑of‑the‑art developer experiences across CLI, IDE and editor integrations, web clients, and backend AI services.

Customer empathy & discovery

• Practice deep customer empathy by listening, asking clarifying questions, and observing how developers actually work, rather than how tools are assumed to be used.
• Identify gaps between product intent and real‑world usage, and drive improvements based on observed friction points.
• Balance long‑term architectural vision with pragmatic, customer‑driven iteration.

• Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.

• 10+ years of professional software development experience with 5+ years in JavaScript, with TypeScript preferred for large‑scale, production codebases
• 2+ years of practical experience building or integrating generative AI systems, including AI assistants or agent‑based coding tools
• Proven ability to design and deliver production‑grade developer tools or platforms used at scale
• Hands-on experience with prompt orchestration, tool calling, evaluation, and iterative refinement of AI‑powered workflows
• Experienced with AI models and tooling regardless of whether they originate from Microsoft or external ecosystems
• Experience engaging directly with customers in technical or solution‑engineering contexts
• Demonstrated ability to translate ambiguous customer needs into concrete technical solutions
• Customer empathy, curiosity, and adaptability, especially in unfamiliar or evolving problem spaces

Software Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $139,900 - $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.