Principal Software Engineer
Microsoft
Software Engineering
Are you passionate about using data to shape exceptional user experiences? Do you want your work to directly impact the lives of billions of people around the world? Microsoft Development Center Norway (MDCN) is expanding, and we’re looking for a talented Principal Software Engineer who thrive on solving complex problems and delivering insights that drive innovation.
Microsoft Development Center Norway (MDCN) is a key engineering hub within Microsoft’s Experiences & Devices division, with offices in Oslo, Trondheim, and Tromsø. Our teams are at the forefront of building and scaling the next generation of Copilot and Large Language Model (LLM) capabilities across Microsoft 365 - powering products like M365 Copilot, Outlook, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Microsoft Teams.
We work on some of the world’s most advanced distributed systems, operating across hundreds of data centers globally. Our solutions are used by Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, non-profits, and hundreds of millions of users every day.
To deliver on our mission to empower people and organizations to achieve more, we build the core services that power Copilot experiences across Microsoft 365. We are seeking a skilled Principal Software Engineer to design, build, and operate planetscale distributed systems that handle massive data volumes with high reliability, low latency, and strong correctness guarantees.
You will work in an agile engineering environment alongside experts in distributed systems, largescale storage and compute, search and indexing, and cloud infrastructure. Your work will directly enable Copilot’s ability to reason over organizational data, personalize experiences, and operate reliably at global scale.
We are looking for engineers who thrive in collaborative environments and are excited to push the boundaries of what AI can do for millions of users worldwide. If you are ready to work on cutting-edge technology with real impact, MDCN is the place for you. 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
- Coordinate and partner across product teams, develop and support key people features in Microsoft AI products – Microsoft Copilot Studio and Bizchat.
- Reviews and breaks down work items into tasks with stakeholder collaboration, provide estimations, and escalate delays, while also supporting feature deployments to customers, considering user and service impacts, and adhering to best deployment practices for safety.
- Collaborates with key stakeholders to define feature requirements, integrates feedback to enhance design, and establishes feedback loops for continuous improvement based on customer metrics.
- Evaluates AI technologies (such as LLMs, SLMs, embeddings) and architectures (such as orchestration patterns, RAG, etc) when developing solutions.
- Specifies or implements AI platform improvements like fine-tuning or training custom ML models.
- Applies coding standards and best practices through code reviews, developing maintainable and extensible code with guidance.
- Utilizes debugging tools to proactively and reactively address issues in product features, ensuring code quality and reliability.
- Ensures compliance with security, privacy, safety, and accessibility standards, leverages developer tools for code creation and debugging, contributes to automation in production and deployment, and proactively seeks knowledge to improve product availability, reliability, efficiency, and performance at scale.
- Understands and applies Microsoft’s responsible AI practices to ensure systems meet our commitments to our customers.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:
- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND extensive technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python\
- OR equivalent experience.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Deep knowledge of AI, cloud-based architectural patterns and best practices.
- Substantial 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.
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.