Overview

Are you passionate about making Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems security, trustworthy, and aligned with human values? The Responsible AI team, part of Microsoft’s CoreAI organization, is pioneering the next generation of safety and security technologies that power AI-first products across Microsoft—including Azure OpenAI, Microsoft Copilot, GitHub, and more—while also protecting customers and enterprises through Azure AI Foundry. Our systems safeguard billions of interactions daily, ensuring that advanced AI models and agentic systems can be deployed responsibly and securely at global scale. You’ll join a team operating at the intersection of cutting-edge research, large-scale distributed systems, and applied machine learning—driving impact for millions of users worldwide.

The CoreAI organization at Microsoft builds the end-to-end AI stack and is core to Azure AI innovation and differentiation, as well as all of Microsoft’s flagship products, from GitHub, to Office, Teams, and Xbox. We are the team building Responsible AI, Azure OpenAI, Model as a Service, Azure Machine Learning (ML), Cognitive Services, and the global Azure AI infrastructure for running the largest AI workloads on the planet.

As a Principal Software Architect, you will lead the design and delivery of responsible AI services spanning model safety evaluation, multimodal content moderation, AI system security, and trustworthy agentic systems. You’ll bring deep technical expertise to tackle complex challenges such as scalable code vulnerability detection, IP protection, content credential and real-time safety interventions for foundation models and AI agents. You will also work closely with customers—including Fortune 500 enterprises and global partners—to understand their safety, compliance, and security needs, ensuring our platforms meet the highest bar of trust and enterprise readiness. Beyond technology, you’ll shape the strategic direction of Microsoft’s responsible AI platforms, guiding your team to deliver trust-enabling capabilities that are core to the company’s AI mission.

In this role, you will work with a unique group of talented engineers, scientists, and product managers to build the industry's best Responsible AI services. You will own the design of new AI services and integration with existing services such as Azure AI Content Safety, Azure OpenAI Service, Azure AI Studio, and more.

Responsibilities

Architect, design, and develop large-scale distributed cloud services and solutions with a focus on high availability, scalability, robustness, and observability.

Lead project development across the organization and work with subject matter experts and stakeholders to drive development and release plans.

Evaluate alternative architectures and technologies that best fit the business requirements and service KPIs.

Take end-to-end responsibility for the development lifecycle and production readiness of the services you build and drive the team’s DevOps culture.

Drive and uphold the best practices of modern software engineering through code and design reviews and take effective service decisions based on data and telemetry.

Understand Microsoft businesses and collaborate with stakeholders towards cohesive, end-to-end experiences for Microsoft customers.

Embrace a growth mindset and stay up to date with the current and state-of-the-art technologies to improve customer experience and better serve the product’s business needs

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, or related technical discipline or equivalent experience AND 8+ years of technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C++, C#, Go, Java, or Python
- OR equivalent experience.

6+ years technical engineering experience designing and delivering highly available, large-scale cloud services and distributed systems.
Experience designing AI powered products and services.

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:

12+ years of technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C++, C#, Go, Java, or Python

4+ years of technical engineering experience with machine learning model development, release, and operations.

Ability to navigate the company and influence and inspire peers in engineering and broad product development.

Demonstrate depth of knowledge and understanding of software architecture, design tradeoffs, and practices of mature DevOps culture.

The track record of pursuing and delivering innovative insights that translate to value generation.

#microsoft #responsibleai #coreai

Software Engineering IC6 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $163,000 - $296,400 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 $220,800 - $331,200 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.

Principal Software Architect - CoreAI