Principal Software Engineer

Commercial Engineering & AI (CEAI) partners closely with stakeholders to accelerate the transformation of Microsoft's commercial business into a frontier organization. We bring together AInative engineering, modern platforms, and deep commercial insight to reimagine how work gets done - at scale and with impact. Our mission is to unlock new ways of operating through intelligent systems while creating the conditions for our teams to do the most meaningful work of their careers. If you're excited to build, experiment, and shape the future of commercial execution with AI at the core, we invite you to apply.

Within CEAI, the Sales Planning & Commercial Incentives (SPCI) team turns Microsoft's revenue strategy into seller reality. SPCI owns the end-to-end engineering of the planning-to-payout lifecycle - the platforms, tools, and user experiences that equip every Microsoft seller with the right coverage, clear targets, and timely, accurate compensation.

As aPrincipal Software Engineer,you will own the technical vision and end-to-end architecture for the planning-to-payout platform. You will define the modular core primitives and the contract-driven, composable architecture that enables the edge, set the engineering standards that keep our systems reliable and secure, and serve as a hands-on technical leader and force multiplier - partnering across engineering, product, business, and corporate functions to ship a composable, intelligent platform that sellers and business stakeholders trust.

• Technical Vision & Architecture - Guide the end-to-end architecture for the planning-to-payout lifecycle. Define the modular core primitives and the contract-driven, composable architecture that enables the edge, balancing long-term extensibility with near-term delivery.

• Set the engineering standards, design patterns, and technical principles for the team. Drive quality, reliability, security, performance, and cost-efficiency across services, and raise the technical bar through design reviews and architectural guidance. Represent SPCI in companywide cadences.

• AI-Native & Agentic Systems - Architect intelligent, agentic capabilities into the platform. Identify where AI can reduce manual toil, increase accuracy, and unlock new experiences across the planning-to-payout lifecycle.

• Hands-on Technical Leadership - Prototype hard problems, lead the most critical designs, and unblock the team. Mentor and grow engineers, acting as a force multiplier across the organization.

• Cross-Functional Influence - Partner with product management, engineering leaders, data science, design, sales operations, and finance to align technical direction with business goals. Influence without authority and unify partners around a clear technical vision and plan.

• Communication & Data-Informed Decisions - Communicate architecture, technical strategy, tradeoffs, and risk to executives with clarity and data-driven narratives. Define and monitor the technical health metrics - reliability, latency, quality, and engineering velocity - that prove the system is winning.