Software Engineer II / Senior Software Engineer

Join Microsoft’s Core AI team and help shape the future of intelligent software development. We’re building a connected, AI-powered platform that spans GitHub, Visual Studio, Azure, and Copilot—empowering millions of developers and organizations to move from AI-assisted coding to AI-native application delivery, where intelligent systems drive development end to end.

We are looking for Software Engineer II/ Senior Software Engineers to design and implement solutions that accelerate secure, scalable software development and help advance agentic DevOps patterns that redefine how engineering teams build, test, and deploy. As a part of this team, you’ll also contribute directly to Visual Studio, enhancing the IDE experience for developers worldwide by integrating AI capabilities, improving performance, and delivering features that make coding more productive and enjoyable. We foster a collaborative environment where different perspectives drive innovation and where your ideas can make a global impact.

Responsibilities

What you’ll do:

• Design and ship AI-assisted features in Visual Studio that help developers generate, explain, and refactor code—measured by adoption, reliability, and user satisfaction.
• Bring intelligence into IDE by integrating GitHub Copilot/MCP tools into core IDE workflows with strong attention to performance, privacy, and safety-by-default.
• Collaborate with partner teams across Microsoft and GitHub to deliver secure, performant solutions and iterate quickly based on real developer feedback.
• Contribute to designs (APIs, data flows, extensibility points) and participate in code/design reviews to maintain quality and scalability for a large codebase.
• Instrument and learn using telemetry, experimentation, and diagnostics to improve latency, reliability, and relevance over time.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 3+ years professional technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, Rust, JavaScript
• OR equivalent experience. 

• 1+ year(s) of experience with building large-scale, high-performance applications or developer tools
• 1+ year(s) of experience using generative AI coding assistance and tooling to augment their development work

Other Requirements  

Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements is 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. 

Preferred Qualifications 

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
• OR related technical field AND 4+ years professional technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Rust
• OR Master's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 2+ years professional technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Rust
• OR equivalent experience
• Experienced in using AI-assisted coding and productivity tools
• Hands-on experience building AI-driven features: prompt design, tool/function calling, eval harnesses; understanding of MCP/agent patterns. Data & experimentation:
• Telemetry analysis, A/B testing, and a data driven approach to iteration
• Professional experience in software craftsmanship: testing, profiling, accessibility, resilience, and secure‑by‑design practices. 
• Experience in operating with autonomy while collaborating proactively across disciplines. 

Software Engineering IC3 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $100,600 - $199,000 per year.

There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $131,400 - $215,400 per year.

Software Engineering IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $119,800 - $234,700 per year.

There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $158,400 - $258