Overview

Overview

Do you want to help shape the future of AI-assisted software development for millions of developers?

We are the engineering team behind GitHub Copilot for 3rd Party IDEs, building rich AI experiences for developers who use Jet Brains IDEs, Xcode, and Eclipse. GitHub Copilot today brings together experiences such as code suggestions, chat, agentic workflows, support for multiple AI models, and extensibility through Model Context Protocol (MCP) across supported environments.

As part of Microsoft’s Developer Division, our team focuses on delivering a high-quality, reliable, and deeply integrated Copilot experience in desktop IDEs outside Microsoft’s first-party IDE stack. This role is centered on desktop client and plugin engineering: building native-feeling IDE integrations, improving responsiveness and reliability, and creating product experiences that fit naturally into developers’ daily workflows.

This is a highly collaborative role. You will work closely with engineers, product managers, designers, and partner teams across the company, including close collaboration with our engineering team in China, to deliver high-impact features and platform improvements for GitHub Copilot.

Responsibilities

Responsibilities:

As a Senior Software Engineer, you will:

• Design, implement, and maintain high-quality desktop client and plugin features for GitHub Copilot in 3rd Party IDEs, including Jet Brains IDEs, Xcode, and Eclipse.
• Build AI-powered developer experiences such as code suggestions, chat, contextual assistance, and agentic workflows in IDE environments.
• Drive engineering excellence in client architecture, performance, startup, responsiveness, diagnostics, reliability, and maintainability.
• Partner with teams across time zones, including the China engineering team, to plan, develop, and ship end-to-end product experiences.
• Collaborate with shared platform and service teams to integrate capabilities such as telemetry, experimentation, model support, and context/tool orchestration.
• Ensure that our products and engineering systems meet security, privacy, compliance, and enterprise readiness requirements.
• Investigate and resolve customer and partner issues with urgency, using telemetry, debugging, and root cause analysis to improve product quality at scale.
• Contribute technical leadership through design reviews, code reviews, mentoring, and adoption of engineering best practices.

What You’ll Bring:

• A strong sense of product quality and craftsmanship in developer-facing experiences.
• A customer-focused mindset and urgency in resolving issues that affect daily productivity.
• A willingness to learn, adapt, and apply new technologies in a fast-moving AI product space.
• The ability to balance feature velocity with reliability, performance, and long-term maintainability.

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 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.
• Proven experience building and shipping production-quality software.
• Experience building plugins or integrations for Jet Brains IDEs, Eclipse, or Xcode.
• Experience in software design, coding, debugging, and problem-solving skills.
• Experience improving software quality through testing, observability, diagnostics, and operational discipline.
• Experience with desktop development on macOS, Windows, or Linux.
• Experience with AI-assisted developer tools, LLM-powered product experiences, or agent-based systems.
• Experience with MCP or similar tool/context integration patterns for AI systems.
• Experience working with cloud-backed services that support client applications.
• Experience in telemetry-driven quality improvement and experimentation.
• Experience with developer ecosystems such as Java/JVM, Apple developer workflows, or enterprise development environments.
• Collaborate across teams, functions, and geographies.

#DDJL

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 $158,400 - $258,000 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.