Principal AI Architect

Job description

Are you ready to architect the future of AI-powered infrastructure at global scale?

Microsoft Digital (MSD) is seeking a Principal AI Architect to lead our transformation into an AI-first, agentic enterprise.

MSD’s mission is to power, protect, and transform the employee experience at Microsoft around the world.

We are driving AI transformation for the company, leveraging the latest technologies to empower Microsoft employees with the tools and services that define both the physical and digital future of work.

Come build community, explore your passions, do your best work and be a part of the team within MSD, the team that innovates, creates, and delivers the vision for Microsoft’s employee experience, corporate and legal affairs, global real estate products, and runs Microsoft’s internal network and infrastructure, plus builds campus modernization and hybrid solutions.

In this role, you’ll reimagine the architecture and design of our Infrastructure and Networking team, driving the adoption of cutting-edge AI—including multi-agent systems, generative AI, and autonomous operations.

You’ll have the unique opportunity to set the blueprint for how foundational AI capabilities, agentic workflows, and intelligent automation will power the next generation of cloud-scale networking and infrastructure to spearhead us into a flagship Frontier Firm.

You will collaborate closely with other technical leaders and architects across Microsoft Digital to ensure alignment with our frontier firm strategy, driving unified vision and execution for AI transformation at scale.

**Why Join Us?**

+ **Impact at Scale:** Shape the AI transformation of one of the world’s largest enterprise networks.
+ **Innovation Playground:** Work with the latest in agentic AI, generative models, and autonomous systems.
+ **Career Growth:** Collaborate with top minds in AI, engineering, and research—expand your influence across Microsoft and the industry.
+ **Inclusive Culture:** Thrive in an environment that values diversity, experimentation, and continuous learning.
+ **Strategic Alignment:** Be at the center of Microsoft Digital’s frontier firm strategy, working alongside other visionary architects and leaders.

This role is based at the Redmond campus, with 3 days per week work in the office and 2 days per week work from home.

Relocation assistance is available.

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.

**Responsibilities**

+ **Architect the Next Frontier:** Design and deliver AI-driven infrastructure and networking solutions that leverage the latest in agentic AI, multi-agent orchestration, and generative models (LLMs, diffusion, etc.) to enable self-optimizing, self-healing, and adaptive systems.
+ **Drive Agentic Transformation:** Lead the integration of agent-based architectures, enabling autonomous workflows, intelligent decision-making, and seamless collaboration between human and AI agents across the enterprise.
+ **Innovate at Scale:** Partner with engineering, product, and research teams to bring state-of-the-art AI research into production—deploying scalable, secure, and resilient solutions that power mission-critical workloads.
+ **Champion AI-First Culture:** Mentor and inspire teams to adopt AI-native engineering practices, foster a culture of experimentation, and accelerate the democratization of AI tooling and knowledge across the organization.
+ **Shape Industry Standards:** Influence the evolution of infrastructure as code (IaC), network as code (NaC), and AI-driven observability, setting new benchmarks for operational excellence and reliability.
+ **Cross-Disciplinary & Cross-Architect Leadership:** Collaborate with other architects and technical leaders to ensure strategic alignment, share best practices, and drive clarity and execution for Microsoft Digital’s frontier firm vision.
+ **Thought Leadership:** Represent Microsoft at industry forums, contribute to open-source and standards bodies, and help define the future of agentic AI in infrastructure.

**Qualifications**

**Required Qualifications:**

+ Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 6+ years technical engineering experience coding in Python, C# or Java
+ OR equivalent experience.
+ 5+ years experience architecting and delivering large-scale, production-grade infrastructure or networking systems.
+ Experienced building AI-driven agentic solutions from conception to scale, including work with the latest AI technologies such as large language models (LLMs), generative AI, multi-agent orchestration, MCP and platforms like Azure AI Foundry, GitHub Copilot, Claude, etc.
+ Experienced building and deploying agentic AI solutions, autonomous workflows, or intelligent automation at scale.
+ Experienced with IaC/NaC tools (Terraform, Ansible, Azure Resource Manager, etc.) and cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP).

**Other Requirements**

+ **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:**

+ Skilled at cross divisional relationship building and ability to collaborate with partners; able to pull together technology and expertise across M365, Windows, and Azure to drive clarity across teams, agree on dependencies and common goals, and establish long-lasting, trusted relationships with partner teams.
+ Ability to drive for results and influence for impact; able to drive clarity, communicate goals to key stakeholders, and motivate them to execute on time and at a high quality.
+ Proactively identifies problems, proposes solutions, with demonstrated ability to navigate ambiguity.
+ Experienced in AI concepts, architecture, and a proven track record as a change agent—able to drive adoption of new technologies and practices across teams.
+ Understanding of AI safety, security, and responsible AI practices.
+ Ability to translate research breakthroughs into practical, scalable solutions.
+ Able to set strategy, influence stakeholders, and inspire teams to achieve ambitious goals.
+ Experience contributing to open-source, standards, or industry consortia in AI or infrastructure domains.

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: https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay

Microsoft will accept applications for the role until October 25, 2025.

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#MSDJOBS

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer.

Consistent with applicable law, 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 and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations (https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/accessibility.html) .

Required Skill Profession

Other General