Software Engineer II-People & Work Intelligence

Overview

The People & Work Intelligence team builds the core AI inference and data platform that enables Microsoft 365 to reason about people, skills, and work at enterprise scale.

We design and operate foundational inferencing services that transform raw Microsoft 365 activity signals into high-quality, privacy-preserving representations of skills and tasks. Our platform combines large language models, organizational context, and standardized taxonomies to power downstream experiences across Copilot, Viva, Learning, and workforce analytics serving as a critical dependency for multiple M365 products.

By providing a durable People & Work Intelligence platform, our work enables developers and product teams to build AI-driven features without re-solving inference, data quality, and compliance challenges accelerating Microsoft's ability to measure, understand, and improve how work gets done with AI.

As a Software Engineer II on the People Intelligence team, you will help build and operate the core AI inferencing and data platform that transforms Microsoft 365 signals into trusted, privacy-preserving skills and task intelligence used across Copilot and people experiences. You'll contribute to backend services and large-scale pipelines that improve inference quality through capabilities like taxonomy matching, confidence scoring, and evaluation frameworks, while strengthening production readiness via telemetry, reliability, and operational excellence. You will work closely with Data Scientists to translate modeling and experimentation insights into scalable, production-grade systems partnering on signal selection, offline/online evaluation, quality diagnostics, and iteration loops that continuously raise precision and trust. You'll also have opportunities to contribute to foundational platform evolution alongside senior engineers, helping ensure the platform remains compliant, extensible, and resilient as it serves multiple downstream consumers.

If you're motivated by building high-leverage platforms, operating complex AI systems in production, and shaping the foundational intelligence layer behind Microsoft 365, the People Intelligence team offers an opportunity to drive impact across the company.

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.

Responsibilities

• Works with appropriate stakeholders to determine user requirements for a set of features.
• Contributes to the identification of dependencies, and the development of design documents for a product area with little oversight.
• Creates and implements code for a product, service, or feature, reusing code as applicable.
• Contributes to efforts to break down larger work items into smaller work items and provides estimation.
• Acts as a Designated Responsible Individual (DRI) working on-call to monitor system/product feature/service for degradation, downtime, or interruptions and gains approval to restore system/product/service for simple problems.
• Remains current in skills by investing time and effort into staying abreast of current developments that will improve the availability, reliability, efficiency, observability, and performance of products while also driving consistency in monitoring and operations at scale.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 2+ 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 3+ 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 5+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python OR equivalent experience.
• 3+ years of professional software development experience with at least 1+ year building cloud-based or distributed applications
• Solid understanding of modern programming languages and frameworks (C#, Java, TypeScript, or equivalent).
• Demonstrated skills in coding, debugging, design, and problem-solving in large-scale systems.
• Exposure to AI/ML-based solutions, including Copilot, LLM integration, or personalization systems.
• Proven written and verbal English communication skills.
• Experience with Dynamics 365 Commerce, Retail, Supply Chain, or other large-scale enterprise systems.
• Experience in microservices architecture, API design, and Azure cloud services (e.g., Service Bus, Cosmos DB, Azure SQL).
• Experience with distributed system telemetry, diagnostics, and performance optimization.

#DPG

Software Engineering IC3 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $100,600 - $199,000 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 $131,400 - $215,400 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.