Principal Software Engineer

Are you passionate about building infrastructure that powers billions of ad impressions daily? Join us to shape the backbone of a rapidly growing ad platform-where scale, reliability, and data-driven innovation are at the heart of everything we do.

As aPrincipal Software Engineer on the Bing Ads team, you will be responsible for designing and developing near real-time services, preparing data stores, and integrating them with other ad-serving components. Collaboration between and across teams is essential part of this role, as you will engage with partners to meet mutual objectives. This role will enable you to gain insights into the Bing ad serving platform, collaborate closely with data scientists, and develop expertise in working with individuals responsible for different components of the ad infrastructure. You will have the opportunity to grow your skills, learn from industry experts, and continuously expand your knowledge in a dynamic and innovative environment. This role allows flexible working hours with partial work from home.

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.

Starting January 26, 2026, Microsoft AI (MAI) employees who live within a 50- mile commute of a designated Microsoft office in the U.S. or 25-mile commute of a non-U.S., country-specific location are expected to work from the office at least four days per week. This expectation is subject to local law and may vary by jurisdiction.

• You will independently implement high-performance solutions across teams while maintaining a quality checklist. You'll also create and monitor telemetry data and influence analytics to better identify patterns that reveal errors and unexpected problems.
• You will lead by example and mentor others to produce extensible and maintainable code used across products. You will spearhead efforts to optimize, debug, refactor, and reuse code to improve performance, maintainability, effectiveness, and return on investment (ROI).
• You will oversee the design and development of products, identifying other teams and technologies that will be leveraged, how they will interact, and when your system may provide support to others. You will lead efforts to determine back-end dependencies associated with the product, ensuring appropriate security and performance, driving reliability in the solutions, and optimizing dependency chains for the solution.
• You will respond to incidents and complex issues by identifying and troubleshooting the issue, deploying the appropriate fixes, and implementing automations to prevent recurring issues. You'll also follow prescriptive guidance for security, privacy, and compliance standards.
• You will collaborate within and across teams by proactively and systematically sharing information. You'll also resolve conflicts across teams and engage with partners to meet mutual objectives.
• You will improve the development and operations of related sets of systems, platforms, or products by sharing insights and best practices. You will achieve this by continuously enhancing your understanding of insights and best practices, optimizing, debugging, refactoring, and reusing code to improve performance, maintainability, effectiveness, and return on investment (ROI), as well as by mentoring other engineers.

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#, Java, C, C++, Python or JavaScript
• OR equivalent experience.
• 4+ years technical experience working with large-scale cloud or distributed data systems.

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:

• 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#, Java, C, C++, Python or JavaScript
• OR 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#, Java, C, C++, Python or JavaScript
• OR equivalent experience.
• 8+ years technical experience in software development, service engineering, or systems engineering.
• 3+ years experience in data science, data modeling, or data engineering.

#MicrosoftAI #cloud #bigdata #bingads

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:
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.