Principal AI Engineer Job at Microsoft Corporation (Redmond)

Principal AI Engineer

Microsoft Corporation

Location:
United States , Redmond

Category:
IT - Software Development

Contract Type:
Not provided

Salary:

139900.00 - 274800.00 USD / Year

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Job Description:

NEXT is the incubation and research arm of Microsoft Security AI (MSECAI), building the next generation of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-native security products, and we're hiring a Principal AI Engineer. In the 18 months since our founding, we’ve driven the science behind Microsoft Security Copilot and delivered both foundational and specialized models. We pursue long horizon bets while landing near term impact, taking ideas from zero-to-one (0→1) prototypes to Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) and then one-to-many (1→N) platform integration across Microsoft Defender, Sentinel, Entra, Intune, and Purview. Our culture blends ambition and scientific rigor with curiosity, humility, and customer obsession; we invest in new knowledge, collaborate across worldclass scientists and engineers, and tackle the immense challenge of protecting millions of customers. We are looking for a Principal AI Engineer for our team. In this role, you will set the multi-year strategy and roadmap for AI-first security experiences and the underlying platform. You will lead zero-to-one (0→1) incubation and one-to-many (1→N) scale-out, provide hands-on technical leadership across architecture, data, and model layers, and orchestrate cross-discipline teams to deliver responsible, high-quality AI features end to end. You are a builder who rapidly prototypes code to de-risk ideas, navigate ambiguity, and drive clarity and results across organizations. You are a presenter who commands your audience to demonstrate amazing ideas from both you and the team.

Job Responsibility:

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

Requirements:

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
This position will be required to pass the Microsoft background and Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter
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

Additional Information:

Job Posted:
February 04, 2026

Employment Type:

Fulltime

Work Type:

Remote work

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