Overview

Are you a hands-on Engineering Manager who loves building foundational systems at massive scale — and pushing the frontier of what AI can do in real products? Do you thrive where distributed systems, ML, signal processing, and product feedback intelligence intersect? If yes — this is your opportunity. We are the Microsoft Sentiment Engineering team within Experiences & Devices, and we are building one of Microsoft’s most strategic platforms: the AI-powered Customer Feedback Intelligence Platform for all of Microsoft.

Our platform is used by hundreds of Microsoft products across Web, Mobile, Windows and Mac — powering the end-to-end feedback loop: collect -> classify ->derive insights with ML + LLMs ->prioritize ->act -> close the loop with customers.

This platform is business critical. It is a trust-sensitive, data-heavy, frontier AI system operating at massive scale — and it is now also powering Responsible AI signal pipelines, Eval workflows and next generation AI intelligence surfaces across Microsoft.

We are looking for a Principal Software Engineering Manager who is both deeply technical and a culture builder — someone who can modernize architecture, increase velocity and reliability, and lead engineers to deliver massively scalable AI + data systems that unlock compounding value across the entire company.

• Responsibilities- Lead and grow a high-impact engineering pod delivering a world-class, trustworthy AI-powered feedback and sentiment data platform.
• Modernize architecture for scale, resiliency, and low-latency AI inference workloads.
• Ensure high-quality engineering fundamentals: operational excellence, fault isolation, testing strategy, privacy, responsible data handling.
• Partner deeply with Product, Responsible AI, Applied Science and platform peers to accelerate AI capabilities and unlock new intelligence scenarios across Microsoft.

Qualifications:

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 6+ years of technical engineering experience with coding in languages such as C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Python OR equivalent industry 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:

• 4+ years people management experience.
• 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.
• Solid experience with large-scale distributed systems, high-throughput pipelines, or production ML/AI systems.

Software Engineering M5 - 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:
https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay

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.