Principal Software Engineering Manager

Principal Software Engineering Manager

Overview

We are seeking a visionary, technically strong and hands-on Principal Software Engineer Manager to lead the Employee Self Service Platform Extensibility team. This team is at the forefront of enabling AI-powered self-service experiences across HR, IT, Facilities, and other enterprise domains. You will drive the development of extensibility features that empower AI agents to deliver seamless, personalized, and actionable employee support through Microsoft Copilot Studio and BizChat.

What we do

The Employee Self-Service (ESS) product is an emerging and cornerstone initiative within Microsoft’s Copilot ecosystem, designed to streamline and personalize employee interactions across HR, IT, and facilities domains. ESS empowers customers to quickly create conversational AI agents that integrates with enterprise systems to deliver accurate, context-aware responses and automate routine tasks.

Our Team

We are a geo-distributed team of engineers in Redmond WA and India, with deep development partnerships with the Microsoft Copilot Studio team, Microsoft AI team and Bizchat team. We partner closely with a talented and senior set of Product Managers, Technical Program Managers, designers, and researchers. We’re a new and emerging product. Both the competition and technology are evolving rapidly, and we’re looking for individuals that current on AI technologies, thrive in ambiguity, learns quickly, curious, and capable of solving problems across multiple code stacks.

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

Team Leadership & Strategy

• Lead and grow a high-performing engineering team focused on extensibility for employee self-service scenarios.
• Define and execute the technical roadmap aligned with organizational goals and cross-functional priorities.

Cross-Team Collaboration

• You will coordinate and partner across product teams, develop and support key extensibility features in Microsoft AI products – Microsoft Copilot Studio and Bizchat.
• You will collaborate with internal and customer HR, IT, and Facilities stakeholders to understand business needs and translate them into technical solutions.

AI Agent Enablement and Platform Extensibility

• Architect and implement extensibility features that allow AI agents to interact with enterprise systems (e.g., HRIS, ITSM, Facilities platforms).
• Own the delivery of key extensibility features such as agent publishing, multi-agent architecture improvements, MCP and connectors, and conversational workflow customization.
• Ensure compatibility with OpenAPI standards and Microsoft’s AI orchestration models.

Drive operational excellence

• Identify and drive performance, scalability, and reliability improvements across the ESS platform.
• Establish engineering best practices, including CI/CD, telemetry, and quality assurance.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Master'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 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 in leading geo-distributed engineering teams.
• Deep knowledge of AI, cloud-based architectural patterns and best practices. 
• 6+ years of experience in designing, building, and managing high-scale full-stack systems including authentication, microservices, distributed systems, data and analytics workloads, and AI training and inferencing services.
• 4+ years people management experience.

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. 

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.

Experience Level

Senior Level