Overview

Do you want to be at the epicenter of cloud computing and AI? Are you passionate about open source software? Azure Developer services are at the core of Microsoft's cloud platform and are growing incredibly fast. Compute is undergoing a revolution starting with virtual machines, containers and container orchestrator frameworks like Kubernetes and serverless, which enables developers to build scalable event-driven cloud applications with speed and ease.

Azure Functions is an open source project at the heart of Azure’s serverless platform and is the next generation of cloud compute. It runs in more than 50 regions and handles billions of daily invocations of customer code written in a variety of languages including JavaScript, Python, C#/F#, Java and PowerShell.

Azure Functions is also becoming a foundational building block for AI in the cloud. Its event-driven, elastically scaled compute model is ideally suited to modern AI workloads—powering AI agents, orchestrating LLM and RAG pipelines, connecting models to real-world data and actions through triggers and bindings, and serving as the serverless glue behind intelligent, agentic applications. As AI reshapes how software is built, the team is at the forefront of defining how developers bring these experiences to life on Azure.

We are looking for a Software Engineer 2 - CoreAI to join the Azure Functions team as a part of CoreAI to design, build and ship the next set of features and tools that will define how cloud native and AI-powered applications are built.

This is a unique opportunity to work on large scale distributed systems and help shape how serverless compute powers the next generation of AI and agentic workloads—initiatives that are key to Microsoft's cloud and AI strategy!

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. In alignment with our Microsoft values, we are committed to cultivating an inclusive work environment for all employees to positively impact our culture every day.

Responsibilities

• Develop both open source and platform components written in C# and a variety of programming languages.
• Build and ship the next set of features and tools that will define how cloud native and AI-powered applications are built.
• Use appropriate artificial intelligence (AI) tools and practices across the software development lifecycle (SDLC) in a disciplined manner.
• Supports efforts to use debugging, tests, tools, logs, telemetry, and other methods to proactively verify assumptions before issues occur for product features in production.
• Reviews product feature code and test code to ensure it meets team standards, contains the correct test coverage, and is appropriate for the product feature.
• Creates and implements code for a product, service, or feature, reusing code as applicable with minimal supervision.
• Writes and learns to create code that is extensible and maintainable.
• Considers diagnosability, reliability, and maintainability with few defects, and understands when the code is ready to be shared and delivered.
• Collaborate with other engineers on the architecture of solutions, following technical leadership as applicable.
• Contributes to the identification of requirements for, and development of automation within production and deployment of a complex product feature, targeting zero-touch deployment when possible. 
• Follows best practices for product development and scaling to customer requirements, and applies best practices for meeting scaling needs and performance expectations and security promises.
• Builds knowledge, shares new ideas, and shares pinpoints of engineering tool gaps to improve software developer tools to support easier, faster, and more effective software engineering for complex product features.
• Understands and applies security best practices and establishes code invariants to model "security as code," ensuring each layer is independently secure, and minimizing risk with minimal supervision.
• Works with appropriate internal stakeholders (e.g., product manager, privacy/security subject matter expert, technical lead) to understand and determine customer/user requirements for a set of features.

Qualifications

Required/Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 2+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C#, C, C++, Java, JavaScript, or Python
• 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 thereafter.

Preferred/Additional Qualifications:

• In depth C#/.NET expertise is highly preferred.
• 4+ years of professional experience designing, developing, and shipping software using any of C#/F#, Java, Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Go or Rust.
• Hands-on experience with distributed systems and services in the cloud.
• Exposure to AI/ML workloads, such as building with LLMs, AI agents, RAG pipelines, or integrating models into cloud applications.
• Experience with performance optimization of .NET based systems.
• Proven ability troubleshooting complex technical issues for running online services.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Experience with Kubernetes.

Software Engineering IC3 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $102,100 - $202,200 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 $133,800 - $219,200 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.