Senior Software Engineer - VS Code (GitHub - CoreAI)
About The Position
As a Senior Software Engineer working on Visual Studio Code in GitHub’s CoreAI organization, you will help build the next generation of editing, development, and GitHub Copilot experiences. You will make complex developer workflows feel simple, from coding and debugging to delegating work to AI. This is hands-on product engineering in a large TypeScript and Rust codebase. You will shape the direction of a feature or technical area, implement it, and improve it after release. The team works in the open and receives direct feedback from developers and extension authors. You will collaborate with engineers, designers, researchers, and product teams across GitHub and Microsoft, drawing on community feedback, research, experiments, and engineering judgment. Performance, accessibility, extensibility, security, and developer control are integral to the product. Illustrative projects include improving navigation and editing in large repositories while preserving startup and typing performance; building Copilot workflows for delegating coding tasks and reviewing, testing, and debugging the resulting changes; extending VS Code APIs to work reliably with extensions and remote development environments; and improving engineering processes with custom tools. You will identify opportunities, shape technical direction, deliver and maintain features, assess outcomes using telemetry and feedback, improve product quality, collaborate with the community, and mentor engineers. The role requires a bachelor’s degree in computer science or a related technical field and at least four years of technical engineering experience coding in languages such as JavaScript, TypeScript, or Rust, or equivalent experience. The position also requires passing the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire or transfer and every two years. Preferred qualifications include five or more years of software engineering experience and experience delivering production features, leading complex technical projects, building interactive applications or APIs, improving products through feedback or experimentation, and working with AI coding tools or developer products.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in computer science or a related technical field and at least four years of technical engineering experience coding in languages including JavaScript, TypeScript, or Rust, or equivalent experience.
- Ability to meet Microsoft, customer, and/or government security screening requirements, including passing the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire or transfer and every two years.
Nice To Haves
- Five or more years of software engineering experience, with a track record of independently delivering and maintaining production features or substantial components.
- Programming and application engineering skills, with the ability to become productive in a large TypeScript and Rust codebase.
- Experience leading technical design and hands-on delivery for complex projects involving multiple contributors, within one team or across partner teams.
- Product and engineering judgment, including the ability to turn an ambiguous user problem into a practical, maintainable solution.
- Communication and collaboration skills, including working across team boundaries and helping other engineers grow.
- Experience with TypeScript, JavaScript, or Rust.
- Experience building interactive applications, with attention to performance, accessibility, or cross-platform behavior.
- Experience designing APIs, extension points, or reusable components.
- Experience improving products through direct user feedback, telemetry, or experiments.
- Practical familiarity with AI coding tools and judgment about where they help, fail, or change development workflows.
- Experience building AI-powered features or contributing to developer tools or open-source projects.
Responsibilities
- Identify product and engineering opportunities using user feedback, experimentation, and technical insight.
- Shape technical direction within the assigned area, balancing near-term product needs with long-term maintainability.
- Lead hands-on design, implementation, testing, and delivery of VS Code features, coordinating contributors and partner-team dependencies as needed.
- Own outcomes after release by understanding adoption, investigating quality issues, and using telemetry, evaluations, and user feedback to guide improvements.
- Improve responsiveness and reliability through profiling, debugging, and automated testing; strengthen tools that support experimentation and confident releases.
- Discuss designs publicly, investigate community-reported issues, and collaborate directly with developers and extension authors.
- Mentor engineers and improve technical decisions through constructive design and code reviews.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
