Overview

If you are excited by the challenge of designing distributed systems that process petabytes of data for the world's most advanced AI models, this is your team. We are not looking for someone to just write queries or maintain legacy pipelines. We are looking for Systems Builders—engineers who understand the internals of distributed compute, who treat data infrastructure as a product, and who want to architect the backbone of Microsoft Copilot.

Join us to build the "Paved Road" for AI. You will own the platform that transforms raw, massive-scale signals into the fuel that powers training, inference, and evaluation for millions of users. We need someone who is energized by solving hard problems in stream processing, lakehouse architecture, and developer experience.

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, MAI employees are expected to work from a designated Microsoft office at least four days a week if they live within 50 miles (U.S.) or 25 miles (non-U.S., country-specific) of that location. This expectation is subject to local law and may vary by jurisdiction. This role is targeting an immediate start date. 

Responsibilities

• Designs and builds, with guidance,  the underlying frameworks (based on Spark/Databricks) that allow internal teams to process massive datasets efficiently, abstracting away the complexity of "ETL" into self-service infrastructure.
• Modernizes data stack by moving from batch-heavy patterns to event-driven architectures, utilizing modern streaming architecture to reduce latency for AI inference.
• Engineers the high-throughput telemetry systems that capture user interactions with Copilot, creating the critical data loops required for Reinforcement Learning and model evaluation.
• Treats the data platform as software. Defines and deploys all storage, compute, and networking resources using IaC (Bicep/Terraform) rather than manual configuration.
• Moves beyond simple "validation checks" to build automated governance and observability systems that detect anomalies in the data mesh before they impact downstream models.
• Deep-dives into query execution plans and cluster performance. Optimizes shuffle operations, partition strategies, and resource allocation to ensure our platform is as cost-efficient as it is fast.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Math, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field
  
  • OR equivalent experience.

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

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's Degree in Computer Science, Math, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field
  • OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Math, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field AND 1+ year(s) experience in business analytics, data science, software development, data modeling or data engineering 
  • OR equivalent experience.
•  Demonstrated technical understanding of massive-scale compute engines (e.g., Apache Spark, Flink, Ray, Trino, or Snowflake). 
• Proven experience in building internal developer platforms or "Data-as-a-Service" APIs.
• Proven experience in streaming technologies (Kafka, Azure EventHubs, Pulsar) and stateful stream processing.
• Reliable experience with container orchestration (Kubernetes) for deploying data applications. 
• Proven experience enabling AI/ML workloads (Feature Stores, Vector Databases).

#EiP 

Data Engineering IC2 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $85,400 - $168,100 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 $111,100 - $183,700 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.

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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.