Senior Software Engineering, Ads Platform

Overview

Online advertising is one of the fastest-growing multi-billion-dollar businesses on the Internet today. Search engines, publishers, ad networks, and ad exchanges serve billions of advertising impressions every day, creating unique technical challenges at global scale. Microsoft Advertising is innovating rapidly to empower advertisers with industry-leading platforms, AI-powered experiences, and data-driven insights that help them achieve more.

The Microsoft Advertising Platform team builds the next generation of marketing and advertising solutions leveraging large-scale cloud services, advanced analytics, and AI technologies. We process hundreds of terabytes of data, operate highly distributed systems at global scale, and continuously innovate to deliver exceptional experiences for advertisers and partners worldwide.

We are looking for a Senior Software Engineer who is passionate about building scalable cloud services, driving technical strategy, and solving complex engineering challenges. In this role, you will lead the design and development of critical platform capabilities, influence architecture across teams, and help shape the future of Microsoft Advertising.

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.

Starting January 26, 2026, Microsoft AI (MAI) employees who live within a 50- mile commute of a designated Microsoft office in the U.S. or 25-mile commute of a non-U.S., country-specific location are expected to work from the office at least four days per week. This expectation is subject to local law and may vary by jurisdiction.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and evolve highly scalable, reliable, and secure distributed systems and customer-facing experiences across frontend and backend platforms.
• Lead the technical design and architecture of complex product features and services, driving engineering excellence and long-term maintainability.
• Partner closely with Product Management, Data Science, Engineering, and Platform teams to define strategy, requirements, and execution plans.
• Drive end-to-end delivery of critical projects, including design reviews, implementation, monitoring, experimentation, and operational excellence.
• Use telemetry, A/B experimentation, and customer insights to identify opportunities, improve product health, and enhance customer experience.
• Mentor engineers, provide technical guidance, and help raise the engineering bar through code reviews, design reviews, and best practices.
• Influence technical direction across multiple teams and contribute to platform-wide architectural decisions.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 4+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
  • OR equivalent experience.

Other Requirements:
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 Qualifications:

• Master'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 Bachelor'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 equivalent experience.
• Solid computer science fundamentals including data structures, algorithms, software design, and distributed systems.
• Proven experience designing, building, deploying, and operating large-scale, highly available, and secure cloud services.
• Excellent technical design, problem-solving, debugging, and performance optimization skills.
• 5+ years of experience architecting, developing, deploying, and operating distributed systems in a production environment.
• Demonstrated ability to independently drive complex technical initiatives from concept to production with high quality and predictable execution.
• Experience leading technical design discussions and influencing engineering decisions across teams.
• Solid collaboration, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience working effectively in ambiguous environments, balancing short-term delivery with long-term technical investments.
• Experience with Microsoft Azure, AWS, or similar cloud computing platforms.
• Knowledge of modern web technologies, service-oriented architectures, observability, reliability engineering, and data-driven development.
• Experience in online advertising, search, e-commerce, AI-powered experiences, or large-scale consumer products is preferred.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Experience leading large-scale platform modernization, cloud migration, or architectural transformation efforts.
• Experience with AI/ML-enabled products, Copilot experiences, recommendation systems, or data-intensive applications.
• Track record of mentoring engineers and driving engineering excellence across an organization.
• Experience operating services at global scale with solid focus on reliability, performance, security, and compliance.

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Software Engineering IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $119,800 - $234,700 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 $160,200 - $261,000 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:
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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.