Principal Software Engineer - FDE

Microsoft; United States; Remote; USD 143,000 - 275,000; Full time

Job summary

Microsoft’s Frontier Company Engineering team seeks a Principal Software Engineer to deliver production-ready services that turn data insights into scalable solutions. You’ll join small, multidisciplinary crews embedding with customer teams and applying AI advancements across the development lifecycle.

You will own end-to-end design, collaborate with data scientists, product managers, and domain experts, and help drive enterprise security, quality, and trust in highly visible customer

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field and 6+ years of software engineering experience.
• Experience coding in languages like C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python.
• Familiarity with deploying and operating AI systems in production environments.

Responsibilities

• Put security first: ensure security standards from design through production.
• Translate business needs into technical solutions with measurable outcomes.
• Design and lead end-to-end architecture for cloud and AI workloads.
• Deliver quickly with modern engineering practices (CI/CD, testing, observability).
• Drive customer success by delivering production-ready solutions and adoption at scale.
• Build reusable assets and reference architectures for broader reuse.
• Lead in ambiguity with clarity, structure, and momentum across engagements.
• Mentor engineers and collaborate with product, data and security partners.

Skills

Software engineering experience

C/C++/C#/Java/Python

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Master's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

C/C++/C#/Java/Python tooling

Cloud AI platforms

Job description

Principal Software Engineer - FDE

United States, Multiple Locations, Multiple Locations

Job number: 200044288

Date posted: Oct 20, 2026

Work site: 0 days / week in-office – remote

Travel: Less than 25%

Profession: Software Engineering

Discipline: Software Engineering

Role type: Individual Contributor

Employment type: Full-Time

Overview

In the Microsoft Frontier Company Engineering team, you won’t just build software; you’ll deliver real outcomes for some of the world’s most complex organizations.

We are a global team of world-class engineers who have been working in a Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) model for more than a decade, embedding directly within customer teams to solve their toughest challenges, side-by-side, and shipping production-ready solutions in days, not months.

As a Principal Software Engineer, you will bring strong software design and engineering expertise, building reliable systems and production-ready services that turn ideas and data-driven insights into scalable solutions.

You’ll work in small, multidisciplinary crews alongside data scientists, product managers, and domain experts, owning the full lifecycle from design through to deployed solutions.

Our work is powered by AI, applying the mindset and tooling across the entire development lifecycle to move from idea to production in days while maintaining the highest standards of security, quality, and trust.

• Build reliable, production-ready systems and services that turn ideas into scalable solutions
• Ship engineering work that directly influences business strategy and customer outcomes
• Collaborate with leading global organizations across industries
• Apply the latest advancements in AI and software engineering to solve problems 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

• Put security first: Build and ship solutions that meet enterprise security standards (threat modeling, secure coding, privacy, and compliance) from design through production.
• Translate business needs into technical solutions: Partner with stakeholders to define problem statements, success metrics, and architectural approaches that deliver measurable outcomes.
• Design and lead architecture: Own end-to-end system design for cloud and AI workloads, making sound tradeoffs across reliability, performance, cost, and maintainability.
• Deliver quickly without sacrificing quality: Use modern engineering practices (CI/CD, automated testing, observability, and progressive delivery) to iterate fast and reduce operational risk.
• Drive customer success and adoption: Work directly with customer engineering teams to deliver production-ready solutions, unblock delivery, and ensure outcomes are adopted at scale.
• Build reusable, scalable assets: Create solution accelerators, reference architectures, and code that can be reused across customers and scenarios to maximize impact.
• Operate effectively in ambiguity: Continuously learn and adapt as technologies and customer priorities evolve; bring clarity, structure, and momentum to complex engagements.
• Lead and mentor across disciplines: Provide technical direction, coach engineers, and collaborate with product, data, and security partners to deliver as one team.
• Lead complex delivery end-to-end: Coordinate multiple workstreams, manage dependencies, and raise the bar on reliability and operational excellence for services running in production.
• Model inclusive, customer-obsessed leadership: Create an environment of trust, accountability, and continuous improvement while representing the company professionally with external stakeholders.

Qualifications

Required/minimum 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.

Other Requirements

• Microsoft is unable to sponsor a work visa for this role due to the nature of the role’s job duties.

Additional or Preferred Qualifications (PQs)

• 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.
• Experience designing, deploying, and operating AI or LLM-based solutions, including prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented approaches, model tuning, evaluation, data quality, performance monitoring, and use of cloud AI platforms
• Familiarity with deploying and operating AI systems in production environments
• Understanding of model evaluation, data quality, and performance monitoring
• Experience using cloud AI platforms (Azure ML, OpenAI, or similar)
• Enjoy travel and are comfortable with travel up to 25%

Software Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142,800 - $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.

#FDE