Principal Software Engineer

The HPC/AI (High performance Computing and Artificial Intelligence) team is on a mission to build the next-generation distributed AI supercomputer, enabling breakthroughs in artificial intelligence by delivering unmatched computational power, scalability and reliability. We design and develop cutting-edge infrastructure that supports high-performance AI model training at scale, laying the foundation for innovations that redefine what AI can achieve. We are seeking passionate and innovative software engineers to design and build cutting-edge networking infrastructure that powers large-scale AI training. This role focuses on developing next-generation networking capabilities to ensure high performance, low latency, and minimal jitter for distributed AI workloads. You will play a critical role in enabling state-of-the-art AI systems to achieve their full potential.

As a Principal Software Engineer on the HPC/AI team, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the next-generation networking infrastructure for AI training and inference in Azure Cloud. This is a unique opportunity to work at the intersection of two of the hottest fields in technology: AI and high-performance computing. With the explosive growth of generative AI and the increasing demand for large-scale, low-latency systems, this area is at the forefront of innovation and impact. You will work across diverse network architectures and cutting-edge processor and accelerator technologies, driving the design and delivery of a comprehensive, end-to-end solution with a relentless focus on performance, scalability, and observability. If you're passionate about groundbreaking technology, large-scale systems, and AI infrastructure, join us to build the platform that will power the future of AI supercomputing!

You will act as a Designated Responsible Individual (DRI) and guides other engineers by developing and following the playbook, working on call to monitor system/product/service for degradation, downtime, or interruptions, alerting stakeholders about status and initiates actions to restore system/product/service for simple and complex problems when appropriate. A successful Principal Software Engineer will p roactively seek new knowledge and adapts to new AI trends, technical solutions, and patterns that will improve the availability, reliability, efficiency, observability, and performance of products while also driving consistency in monitoring and operations at 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.

Responsibilities:

• Partner with appropriate stakeholders to determine user requirements for a set of scenarios.
• Lead identification of dependencies and the development of design documents for a product, application, service, or platform.
• Leads by example and mentors others to produce extensible and maintainable code used across products.
• Design, develop, and optimize networking solutions tailored for large-scale AI training infrastructure. Architect and implement high-performance, low-latency, and low-jitter communication frameworks for distributed systems.
• Benchmark, analyze, and enhance the scalability and reliability of networking systems to handle petabyte-scale data transfer.
• Debug and resolve complex networking issues in large-scale, high-performance environments.
• Create, implement, optimize, debug, refactor, and reuse code to establish and improve performance and maintainability, effectiveness, and return on investment (ROI).

Qualifications:

Required Qualifications:

• 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.
• 1+ year(s) experience with network virtualization, software-defined networking (SDN), or network performance tuning and f amiliarity with AI accelerators such as GPUs (NVIDIA, AMD) or TPUs, and how they interact with networking infrastructure.

Other Qualifications:

• 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:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
  • OR related technical field AND 10+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript,
  • OR Python
  • OR 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 equivalent experience.
• 1+ year(s) hands-on experience with networking technologies in AI-specific hardware (e.g., InfiniBand, ROCE, NVLink) and i n-depth understanding of networking protocols (e.g., Ethernet, TCP/IP, RDMA, gRPC) and distributed systems.
• 1+ year(s) experience with telemetry and observability tools for network monitoring at scale with a b ackground in building scalable and fault-tolera.

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.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here: ;br>
Microsoft will accept applications for the role until July 13, 2025.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form .

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.

#azurecorejobs