Job Description

Overview

Microsoft  Azure  AI Inference platform is the next generation cloud business positioned to address the growing AI market. We are on the verge of an AI revolution and have a tremendous opportunity to empower our partners and customers to harness the full power of AI responsibly. We offer a fully managed AI  Inference  platform to accelerate the research, development, and operations of AI powered intelligent solutions at scale. This team  owns the hosting, optimiz ation , and scaling  the inference stack for all  the  Azure AI  Foundary models including the latest and greatest from OpenAI,  Grok, DeepSeek , and  other OSS models .

Do you want to join a team entrusted with serving all internal and external ML workloads,  solve real world  inference  problems  for state-of-the-art l arge  l anguage (LLM) and  multi-modal  Gen  AI models  from  OpenAI and other  model providers ? We are already serving billions of  inferences per day on the most  cutting-edge AI  scenarios across the  industry . You will be joining the CoreAI Inferencing team , influencing the overall product, driving new features and platform capabilities from preview to General Availability, and many exciting problems on the intersection of AI and  C loud.

We’re looking for a Principal Software Engineer - Azure AI Inferencing to drive the design, optimization, and scaling of our inference systems. In this role,  you’ll lead engineering efforts to ensure our largest models run with exceptional efficiency in high-throughput, low-latency environments. You will get to work on and influence  multiple levels of the AI Inference  data plane s tack.

We do not just value differences or different perspectives. We seek them out and invite them in so we can tap into the collective power of everyone in the company. As a result, our customers are  better served .

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.

Qualifications

Required/Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in  C omputer  S cience or related technical field AND 6+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, or Golang
  • OR equivalent experience.
• 4+ years’ practical e xperience  working on high scale, reliable online systems

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.

Preferred/Additional Qualifications

• Technical background and foundation  in software engineering principles , distributed  computing and architecture
• Experience  in real-time  online services with low latency and high throughput
• Experience working with L7 network proxies and gateways
• Knowledge in Network architecture and concepts ( and TCP Protocols, Authentication and Sessions  etc )
• Knowledge and experience in OSS, Docker, Kubernetes, C++, Golang, or equivalent programming languages
• Cross-team collaboration skills and the desire to collaborate in a team of researchers and developers
• Ability to independently lead projects

Software Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $139,900 - $274,800 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 $188,000 - $304,200 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:

Microsoft posts positions for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

#AIPlatform

#CoreAI

# azureai

# coreai

# genai

#aiinference

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and implementation of core inference infrastructure for serving frontier AI models in production.
• Identify and drive improvements to end-to-end inference performance and efficiency of OpenAI and other  state-of-the-art LLMs .
• Lead the d esign and implement ation of efficient load scheduling and  balancing strategies , by  leveraging key insights  and features of the model and workload.
• Scale the platform to support the grow ing i nferenc ing demand and maintain high availability.
• Deliver critical capabilities  required to serve the latest and greatest Gen AI models such as GPT5, Realtime audio, Sora, and enable fast time to market for them.
• Drive generic features to cater to the needs of customers such as GitHub, M365, Microsoft AI and third-party companies.
• Collaborate  with our partners both internal and external .
• Mentor engineers on distributed inference best practices.
• Embody Microsoft's  Culture  and  Values .

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.

 Industry leading healthcare

 Educational resources

 Discounts on products and services

 Savings and investments

 Maternity and paternity leave

 Generous time away

 Giving programs

 Opportunities to network and connect

Job Tags

Ongoing contract, Full time,

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