Principal Software Engineer - Microsoft AI Search

Overview The Bing Multimedia team is shaping the next generation of AI-powered visual discovery, helping people explore, understand, and make decisions through images at global scale. We build the intelligent systems that power Bing Image Search and multimodal experiences across Microsoft’s AI ecosystem. As a Principal Software Engineer on the Image Search Experience team, you will define and build AI-native platforms that combine multimodal understanding, large language models, and high-performance distributed systems to deliver rich, adaptive visual experiences. You will work across system architecture, core services, and experience-level intelligence to enable new ways for users to search, explore, and interact with visual information. This role offers the opportunity to operate at the highest level of individual contribution: setting technical direction, shaping foundational systems, and delivering production-grade AI experiences used by millions of people worldwide. 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. Starting January 26, 2026, Microsoft AI (MAI) employees who live within a 50- mile commute of a designated Microsoft office in the U.S. or 25-mile commute of a non-U.S., country-specific location are expected to work from the office at least four days per week. This expectation is subject to local law and may vary by jurisdiction. Responsibilities Set technical direction for AI-powered image search, shaping how intelligent systems understand user intent, adapt to context, and deliver meaningful visual experiences at global scale. Own high-impact product and platform areas end to end, translating complex user needs into durable system designs and production-ready solutions. Apply large language models and multimodal AI in production, integrating reasoning and grounding capabilities to improve relevance, usefulness, and overall experience quality. Enable intelligent, adaptive experiences, ensuring image search systems make holistic decisions that guide users through exploration, refinement, and decision-making. Design and operate scalable platforms, driving high standards for performance, reliability, and efficiency under real-world workloads. Define success metrics and experimentation strategies, using data and user feedback to validate impact, guide tradeoffs, and inform long-term technical direction. Influence across teams and raise the engineering bar, partnering with product, design, data science, and platform teams, mentoring engineers, and guiding architecture and design reviews Qualifications Required Qualifications: 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. Preferred Qualifications: 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. Experience building search, recommendation, or large-scale information retrieval systems. Hands-on experience with LLMs, multimodal AI, or AI-driven reasoning systems in production. Experience designing evaluation, experimentation, and quality metrics for AI-powered systems. Background in image processing, computer vision, or content understanding pipelines. Track record of mentoring engineers and driving engineering best practices at scale. Solid product intuition and ability to balance user value, system complexity, and operational constraints. #MicrosoftAI Software Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142,800 - $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: https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay 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. Insights from previous hires Top skills: Architecture, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Computer Science, Automation, Analytics, Engineering, C++, Apache, Algorithms, Agile Methodologies Common previous titles: Software Engineer, Software Engineer II, Senior Consultant, Senior Software Engineer, Cloud Solution Architect, Software Engineer 2, Senior Security Researcher, Research Engineer, Principal Software Engineer, Data Scientist