Principal Software Engineer

Microsoft • Redmond, WA

2d • $142,800 - $304,200

About The Position

AI agents are transforming how organizations automate workflows, make decisions, and scale productivity. As agents increasingly reason, plan, and execute actions autonomously, they need secure, reliable, and governed connectivity to enterprise data, tools, and services. Agent 365 is Microsoft’s unified control plane for AI agents, providing capabilities for agent registry, lifecycle management, access governance, observability, interoperability, and security. The WorkIQ-Infra team builds the foundational connectors and connection-management services that power Microsoft 365 Copilot, Agent 365, and Power Platform–based agents, workflows, and applications. As a Principal Software Engineer, you will help shape and build the Agent Connectivity Platform, enabling agents to discover, authenticate to, and interact with enterprise and third-party systems. You will drive architecture, deliver production-quality code, and solve complex distributed-systems challenges across connectors, connection lifecycle management, authentication, and secure tool invocation. This is a hands-on individual contributor role with technical influence across teams. Your work will directly impact how agents connect and operate across organizational boundaries—securely, reliably, and at global Microsoft scale. 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.

Requirements

• 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.
• 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.

Nice To Haves

• 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.
• Experience with identity and access technologies such as OAuth 2.0, Microsoft Entra ID, delegated and application permissions, and credential lifecycle management.
• Experience building agent-facing tools or services, including familiarity with Model Context Protocol (MCP) or related interoperability patterns.
• Experience designing and operating multi-tenant services with enterprise security, governance, and compliance requirements.
• 3+ years of professional experience using generative AI to accelerate software development, improve operations, and assess customer satisfaction.

Responsibilities

• Drive architecture and technical direction for the Agent Connectivity Platform, translating complex requirements into scalable, secure, and maintainable designs.
• Design, build, and operate core platform services spanning connectors, connection management, authentication, authorization, and agent access to enterprise and third-party systems.
• Own delivery end to end, from requirements and design through implementation, testing, rollout, and production operations.
• Partner with product managers, engineers, and stakeholders across Microsoft to define customer scenarios, resolve dependencies, and deliver shared platform capabilities.
• Write high-quality, extensible code and raise engineering standards through design reviews, code reviews, and hands-on technical mentorship.
• Lead by example in AI-first development, applying AI tools to accelerate implementation, testing, troubleshooting, and operations while maintaining quality and security.
• Define success metrics and use prototypes, experiments, and production telemetry to validate designs, assess customer impact, and guide release decisions.
• Build security, compliance, tenant isolation, and governance into platform architecture and connection lifecycles.
• Serve as a Designated Responsible Individual (DRI), participate in on-call rotations, lead incident diagnosis and mitigation, and drive improvements that prevent recurrence.
• Improve platform availability, reliability, performance, observability, and cost efficiency through engineering investments and operational learning.
• Influence technical decisions across teams and share reusable patterns that simplify integration and improve the developer experience.
• Define the evals strategy and platform for agentic systems, establishing rigorous benchmarks, automated quality measurement, regression detection, and release criteria that make agent quality measurable and continuously improvable.

Benefits

• 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

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal