Principal Software Engineering Manager

Security represents the most critical priorities for our customers in a world awash in digital threats, regulatory scrutiny, and estate complexity. Microsoft Security aspires to make the world a safer place for all. We want to reshape security and empower every user, customer, and developer with a security cloud that protects them with end to end, simplified solutions. The Microsoft Security organization accelerates Microsoft’s mission and bold ambitions to ensure that our company and industry is securing digital technology platforms, devices, and clouds in our customers’ heterogeneous environments, as well as ensuring the security of our own internal estate. Our culture is centered on embracing a growth mindset, a theme of inspiring excellence, and encouraging teams and leaders to bring their best each day. In doing so, we create life-changing innovations that impact billions of lives around the world.

We are seeking a driven and experienced Principal Software Engineering Manager to lead the development of core runtime capabilities that power AI agents and orchestrator systems within Microsoft Security Copilot. This is a pivotal role for a technical leader who thrives at the crossroads of AI research, product strategy, and production-scale systems engineering. You'll be responsible for operationalizing cutting-edge research into secure, scalable, and orchestrated agent workflows that transform how organizations secure their digital environments. As a leader on the Security Copilot team, you'll manage a talented engineering team and collaborate closely with AI researchers, product managers, UX designers, and partner engineering teams. Your team's charter will include the evolution of multi-agent orchestration frameworks, agent execution environments, tooling integration, and runtime governance. This role will require strategic thinking, system-level design skills, and an ability to deliver complex features in high-stakes security contexts.

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

• Lead the runtime engineering charter for Security Copilot, building and evolving the infrastructure for AI agent orchestration and execution across security scenarios.
• Serve as the bridge between research prototypes and production—assessing feasibility, defining technical direction, and ensuring reliable agent deployment pipelines.
• Build and scale a high-impact engineering team, fostering a culture of technical excellence, inclusion, and rapid iteration.
• Collaborate deeply with AI researchers, applied scientists, and product teams to define agent behaviors, orchestration flows, and runtime policies.
• Implement secure-by-design engineering practices for agent lifecycle management, observability, and system resilience.
• Drive the integration of toolchains, memory, context handling, and plugin frameworks into a cohesive runtime environment.
• Establish runtime metrics and diagnostics to evaluate agent task success, execution reliability, and customer impact.
• Communicate clearly across disciplines, balancing technical detail with business and product priorities

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, or related technical discipline 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.
• 3+ years people management experience.
• Proficient programming and system architecture skills in Python, C#, Java, or similar, with proven delivery of large-scale or distributed systems.
• Demonstrated cross-functional skills in managing relationships with PMs, researchers, and UX teams.
• 6+ years of experience designing, building, and operating scalable, highly available cloud services or distributed systems on platforms such as Azure, AWS, GCP, or comparable cloud environments, with production ownership and CI/CD pipeline integration.​
• 6+ years of experience applying distributed systems concepts such as concurrency, conflict resolution, and consensus algorithms to build resilient and maintainable back-end architectures.​
• 6+ years of experience building systems with emphasis on reliability, durability, and operational efficiency, including experience with live site operations, incident response, and performance optimization.​

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 background and Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.

Preferred Qualifications:

• 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, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript,
  • OR Python
  • OR 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 equivalent experience.
• 4+ years people management experience.
• Demonstrated experience converting abstract AI/ML or systems concepts into robust, customer-facing products.
• Familiarity with agent-based systems, orchestration frameworks, or machine learning system integration.
• Experience leading or building runtime systems for generative AI agents, multi-agent frameworks, or AI tools integration.
• Hands-on experience in cloud infrastructure, threat detection systems, or security platforms.
• Prior experience defining SLAs, runtime security boundaries, or safe execution for AI systems.
• Ability to drive both short-term product milestones and long-term technical architecture.

Software Engineering M5 - 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        

Microsoft will accept applications for the role until July 17, 2025. 

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances.  We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form.

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.

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