below marketmost similar roles pay hereabove market
This role pays more than
54%
of similar roles. Most pay
$203,799–$254,750
— the blue band above.
At the midpoint, this role pays about
$231k
versus about
$229k
for comparable roles.
Based on 240 similar postings.
Employer
About Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is a global technology leader producing software, hardware, and cloud services including Windows, Office 365, Azure cloud platform, Xbox gaming, and Surface devices. Industry: Software & Cloud Computing
Microsoft currently has
694 open roles
on FindRole.
Listed pay typically runs
$119,800–$234,700
across 651 roles with salary data.
The Principal ML Engineer joins the Copilot Discover Engineering Team as a senior technical architect to define the long-range architecture and technical direction for Copilot Discover. This role involves designing and driving systems that power the Copilot Discover feed at scale, focusing on foundational platforms that ingest, enrich, rank, personalize, and serve content across web, mobile, and partner surfaces. The engineer will modernize the ranking and personalization stack while building AI-forward infrastructure for content understanding, summarization, and safety. Key technologies and skills include Apache Spark, Kafka, columnar storage, data modeling, schema evolution, and experience with large-scale distributed systems, microservices, and APIs. The work addresses the technical challenge of unifying signals, models, and data into coherent, trustworthy, and personalized discovery experiences.
Own the technical direction and end-to-end architectural strategy for Copilot Discover platforms.
Translate business and user needs into executable architectural plans and multi-year roadmaps.
Govern architectural decisions to ensure systems are scalable, secure, reliable, and cost-efficient.
Establish and evolve quality standards for testing, CI/CD practices, monitoring, and live-site health.
Shape the adoption of AI/ML techniques for content understanding, personalization, and safety.
Align MSN architecture with Bing, Copilot, Ads, and Privacy platforms across the organization.
Review critical designs and establish falsifiable principles to raise the technical bar.
What we're looking for
Bachelor's Degree in a relevant field and 8+ years of experience, Master's and 6+ years, or Doctorate and 5+ years of experience.
Equivalent experience to the degree and years of experience requirements.
Master's Degree in a relevant field and 12+ years of experience, or Doctorate and 8+ years of experience (preferred).
Proven experience designing and operating large-scale distributed systems, including data pipelines, microservices, APIs, and storage systems (preferred).
Experience with content platforms, personalization systems, or consumer-facing services at scale (preferred).
Experience with Apache Spark, Kafka, columnar storage, data modeling, and schema evolution (preferred).
Demonstrated success as a technical lead or architect influencing across teams without direct authority (preferred).
Experience with ML/AI systems for content understanding, ranking, or personalization (preferred).