New The Skills of Tomorrow: how AI-exposed is every skill in 2026? See the data →
Microsoft

Principal Software Engineer

Microsoft
onsite senior full-time USD $139,900 – $274,800 per year Mountain View
Apply →

First indexed 6 Mar 2026

Description

Summary

Microsoft are looking for a talented Principal Software Engineer at their Mountain View office. This role sits at the forefront of transforming digital advertising through intelligent automation and large-scale optimization. You'll help shape the next generation of our agentic auto-bidding platform — one that learns, adapts, and optimizes autonomously.

About the Role

Our team is at the forefront of transforming digital advertising through intelligent automation and large-scale optimization. We design and build the auto-bidding platform that powers real-time ad auctions across Microsoft’s marketplaces—leveraging cutting-edge AI, machine learning, and large-scale distributed systems to bid on behalf of millions of advertisers. Engineers and scientists work hand-in-hand, blending algorithmic innovation, reinforcement learning, and large-scale data pipelines to create the intelligence that drives Microsoft Advertising’s success.

Accountabilities

  • Collaborate with data scientists, ML engineers, and product teams to define requirements for agentic AI-driven bidding capabilities that observe, reason, and adapt autonomously.
  • Architect and implement the next-generation agentic bidding platform , enabling AI agents to monitor marketplace signals, interpret advertiser and user behavior, and continuously optimize bidding strategies.

The Candidate we're looking for

Experience:

  • 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.

Technical skills:

  • 4+ years of hands-on experience with large-scale streaming platforms such as Apache Spark or Flink.
  • 4+ years of experience as a technical lead, including mentoring and guiding engineers.

Personal attributes:

  • Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role.

Benefits

  • Software Engineering IC5 – The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $139,900 – $274,800 per year.
  • Software Engineering IC6 – The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $163,000 – $296,400 per year.
This listing is enriched and indexed by YubHub. To apply, use the employer's original posting: https://microsoft.ai/job/principal-software-engineer-27/