Microsoft · 1 day ago
Principal AI Engineer
United States
Full-time
Remote
Senior Level, Lead/Staff
$140K/yr - $275K/yr
6+ years expMicrosoft is committed to making the world a safer place through innovative security solutions. The Principal AI Engineer will lead the strategy and development of AI-native security products, overseeing technical leadership and cross-disciplinary collaboration to deliver high-quality AI features.
Agentic AIApplication Performance ManagementArtificial Intelligence (AI)Business DevelopmentDevOpsInformation ServicesInformation TechnologyManagement Information SystemsNetwork SecuritySoftware
Responsibilities
Define the technical vision, strategy, and roadmap for AI-native incubation initiatives; align stakeholders across Security Copilot, Defender, Sentinel, Entra, Purview, Azure AI Foundry and Microsoft AI to deliver cohesive customer value
Lead zero-to-one (0→1) incubation R&D through MVP and private preview, then drive one-to-many (1→N) platformization and scale to GA; make principled tradeoffs across quality, latency, reliability, cost, and safety
Provide hands-on technical leadership: prototype in code, review designs and Pull Requests (PRs), define Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)/data contracts, build comprehensive well-architected systems, and establish evaluation frameworks to de-risk complex systems
Set strategy for AI-native security experiences and platform components: where to use Large Language Models (LLMs) versus classical Machine Learning (ML), retrieval/Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) design, grounding, model routing/fallbacks, and safety guardrails to meet customer outcomes and Service Level Objectives (SLOs)
Ensure Responsible AI, privacy, and security guardrails are designed in from day one, coordinate safety reviews, abuse prevention, compliance, and incident readiness
Lead v-teams and mentor others; cultivate a builder culture of velocity and quality as a force multiplier. Engage directly with enterprise customers and field to co-design solutions and land adoption; communicate program status and strategy to executives with hands on real code demonstrations
Qualification
Required
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
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 background and Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter
Preferred
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
6+ years of experience driving complex, cross-functional initiatives; experience leading without authority across multiple teams
3+ years working with Machine Learning (ML)/Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems (e.g., Large Language Models (LLMs)/Generative AI (GenAI), retrieval/Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), model serving, experimentation platforms, data pipelines) including establishing evaluation metrics and improving model quality
Experienced in program leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence leaders and make data-informed decisions
Proven track record shipping cloud services or platforms at scale (multi-tenant, high-throughput) with measurable customer and business impact
Security domain expertise (e.g., threat detection/response, SIEM/SOAR, identity, endpoint, cloud security) and familiarity with analyst workflows
Experience with GenAI/LLM techniques and tooling (prompt engineering, retrieval/vector stores, agents/tool use, content safety/guardrails, offline/online eval frameworks, vibe coding)
Hands-on coding ability in one or more languages (e.g., Python, C#, C++, Rust, JavaScript/TypeScript); comfortable prototyping, reading Pull Requests (PRs), and engaging deeply in technical design reviews
Demonstrated success driving zero-to-one (0→1) initiatives from ambiguity to Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to General Availability (GA) and then to one-to-many (1→N) platform adoption across multiple product teams
Benefits
Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation.
Company
Microsoft
Microsoft is a software corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells a range of software products and services.
10001+ employees
H1B Sponsorship
Microsoft has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
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Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (9192)
2024 (9343)
2023 (7677)
2022 (11403)
2021 (7210)
2020 (7852)
Funding
Current Stage
Public CompanyTotal Funding
$1MKey Investors
Technology Venture Investors
2022-12-09Post Ipo Equity
1986-03-13IPO
1981-09-01Series Unknown· $1M
Leadership Team
Satya Nadella
Chairman and CEO
Vukani Mngxati
Chief Executive Officer - Microsft South Africa
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