OverviewCommercial Engineering & AI (CEAI) partners closely with stakeholders to accelerate the transformation of Microsoft’s commercial business into a frontier organization. We bring together AI‑native engineering, modern platforms, and deep commercial insight to reimagine how work gets done - at scale and with impact. Our mission is to unlock new ways of operating through intelligent systems while creating the conditions for our teams to do the most meaningful work of their careers. Partner Center is Microsoft’s primary platform for engaging, enabling, and transacting with our global partner ecosystem. Spanning partner enrollment, incentives, co-sell, marketplace, billing, compliance, and AI-powered experiences, we build products and platforms that help millions of partners grow their businesses and accelerate customer success. Joining Partner Center offers the opportunity to work at the intersection of AI, commerce, and platform engineering while delivering solutions that directly impact Microsoft’s ecosystem growth and revenue. As a Principal Software Engineer, you will define and drive the long-term architecture for Partner Center and the broader Microsoft partner ecosystem. You will lead the technical vision for platform modernization, Cloud Subscription migration, AI-native engineering, and ecosystem-wide data and integration strategies. This role requires deep architectural leadership across multiple organizations, balancing near-term delivery with long-term platform evolution while ensuring Partner Center, Commerce Core, and adjacent partner platforms operate as a cohesive, scalable, and future-ready ecosystem. You will influence platform roadmaps, establish architectural standards and patterns, and drive technical decisions that improve interoperability, resiliency, efficiency, and reusability across the commercial platform landscape.ResponsibilitiesDefine and drive the long-term architectural strategy for Partner Center and the broader partner ecosystem, ensuring alignment with business priorities, platform evolution, and organizational objectives. Lead architecture decisions for Cloud Subscription migration, platform modernization, and large-scale engineering investments, establishing scalable, resilient, secure, and maintainable platform foundations. Serve as the primary architectural liaison with Commerce Core (CoCo), representing Partner Center requirements in platform strategy and architecture forums, influencing platform roadmaps, and ensuring Partner Center can leverage future platform capabilities and designs. Champion AI-native engineering practices across the organization, driving adoption of AI-powered development, operational excellence, and responsible AI patterns throughout the software development lifecycle. Develop and maintain a holistic architectural view of the Microsoft partner ecosystem, spanning Partner Center, partner-facing services, business systems, and data platforms to drive consistency, interoperability, and platform reuse. Drive ecosystem-wide data architecture and integration strategies, ensuring partner data can be effectively shared, governed, and consumed across platforms including Partner Center, MSXI, Partner 360, Know Me, and other partner intelligence solutions. Lead architecture reviews and technical design discussions across multiple teams, providing guidance on scalability, performance, resiliency, security, compliance, and platform evolution. Identify opportunities to reduce platform duplication, simplify system interactions, and consolidate capabilities through shared services, common data models, and strategic platform investments. Influence technical direction across multiple engineering organizations, partnering with architects, engineering leaders, product leaders, and platform teams to align on long-term architectural strategy and execution. Mentor engineers and architects, raising the technical bar through architectural leadership, design reviews, and engineering best practices.QualificationsRequired/minimum qualificationsBachelor'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 equivalent experience. Preferred QualificationsExperience leading architecture strategy and platform modernization efforts across multiple engineering organizations and large-scale distributed systems.Experience in Native AI Engineering. Experience delivering large scale on line services. Technical background and hands on experience. Experience mentoring other Software Engineers. #CEAIjobs Software Engineering IC6 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $165,600 - $296,400 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 $220,800 - $331,200 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-payThis 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.