Principal Software Engineer

Company: Microsoft
Location: Redmond
Posted on: February 26, 2026

Job Description:

Microsoft is a company where passionate innovators come to collaborate, envision what can be and take their careers further. This is a world of more possibilities, more innovation, more openness, and the sky is the limit thinking in a cloud-enabled world. Microsoft’s Azure Data engineering team is leading the transformation of analytics in the world of data with products like databases, data integration, big data analytics, messaging & real-time analytics, and business intelligence. The products our portfolio include Microsoft Fabric, Azure SQL DB, Azure Cosmos DB, Azure PostgreSQL, Azure Data Factory, Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure Service Bus, Azure Event Grid, and Power BI. Our mission is to build the data platform for the age of AI, powering a new class of data-first applications and driving a data culture. Within Azure Data, the messaging and real-time analytics team provides comprehensive solutions and a robust platform that enables users to ingest high granularity signals (real-time & observability) and complex data, converting those into a competitive advantage in real-time for both end users and modern applications. Within Azure Data Fabric, come join the Azure Monitor Application Insights team and help build the best services and experiences for developers to monitor their GenAI applications! This is a rare opportunity to shape a frontier area: observability for LLM-powered systems where engineering teams need answers like “Why did the agent choose that tool?”, “Which step caused the regression?”, “What drove token cost up?”, and “Did the system actually meet user intent?” As a Principal Software Engineer, you’ll lead architecture and execution across experiences and platform capabilities—from instrumentation patterns to large-scale data pipelines to developer-facing insights. You’ll work across partner teams and customer scenarios to define what “great” looks like for GenAI observability, then drive it into production with the engineering rigor Azure demands: reliability, performance, privacy, security, and operational excellence at global scale. We do not just value differences or different perspectives. We seek them out and invite them in so we can tap into the collective power of everyone in the company. As a result, our customers are better served. Responsibilities Lead the design and delivery of core Application Insights capabilities for GenAI and agentic applications, shaping how developers observe, troubleshoot, and improve non deterministic systems at scale. Drive architecture and technical direction across high throughput cloud scale services, ensuring reliability, performance, security, and cost efficiency as workloads and signals continue to evolve. Own end to end experiences that combine UX and platform capabilities, translating complex telemetry (traces, prompts, evaluations, tool calls) into clear, actionable insights for developers and operators. Collaborate across Azure Data, Azure Monitor, and partner teams to align on long term platform strategy, open standards, and shared investments that enable GenAI observability as a first-class Azure capability. Raise the engineering bar through thoughtful design, code quality, and operational rigor, helping the team make sound technical decisions while balancing innovation with enterprise grade requirements. Mentor and influence other engineers, providing technical leadership through design reviews, architectural guidance, and hands on collaboration, without relying on formal authority. Qualifications Required/Minimum Qualifications Bachelors Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 6 years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C#, Java, TypeScript, or Python OR equivalent experience. Job Requirements: Other & Additional 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/Additional Qualifications 5 years experience with debugging and developing high scale high throughput cloud services. 5 years experience with architecture and high level design of high scale cloud services. 5 years experience with solving latency and performance issues 5 years experience with Azure infrastructure is a plus. 1 years experience with using AI during development 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.

Keywords: Microsoft, Edmonds , Principal Software Engineer, IT / Software / Systems , Redmond, Washington