Principal Software Engineering Manager - Search

As the Principal Software Engineering Manager within the Windows Search Platform Engineering team, you will be responsible for: Owning the technical direction and architecture for the Windows Search Platform from design through retail delivery. Driving the evolution of Search Platform into an AI-native infrastructure layer, enabling Copilot, MCP/LLM integrations, and future agentic discovery patterns while maintaining enterprise-grade reliability and performance. Leading cross-functional partnerships with Products, File Explorer, Windows Search Box and other external partners to drive architectural consensus, scope clarity, and release governance. Establishing and enforcing release discipline and observability as first-class requirements. Defining and driving data-backed engineering decisions across the platform. Leading, mentoring, and growing a team of 7-10 engineers — running effective 1:1s, providing direct feedback, building clear growth paths, and cultivating a culture of engineering rigor, ownership, and speed. Recruiting and retaining top systems engineering talent, with a bias toward people who are curious about and energized by AI-native development and Windows platform internals. Representing your team's work to senior leadership, communicating trade-offs, risks, delivery timelines, and strategic context with clarity and confidence in forums such as Shiproom, Mission Controls, and leadership reviews. Driving program execution across multiple concurrent tracks (8-10 workstreams), including sprint cadence, ADO hygiene, capacity planning, and cross-org alignment. Championing AI-assisted engineering practices — leveraging agentic workflows, automation, and AI tooling to reduce KTLO burden, accelerate delivery, and multiply team velocity. Thought leadership for the broader organization on search platform architecture. Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 6+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python. 4+ years of people management experience leading engineering teams. Solid systems programming background with experience in platform/infrastructure-level software developmExperience with search/indexing systems, database internals, file systems, or information retrieval at scale. Master's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience. OR Bachelor's Degree AND 14+ years technical engineering experience. OR equivalent experience. 6+ years of people management experience with demonstrated track record of growing senior/principal-level engineers. Deep understanding of Windows internals, NT kernel, file systems (NTFS/ReFS), and OS-level search infrastructure. Experience driving multi-track programs (5+ concurrent workstreams) with solid release governance and retail delivery discipline. Proven ability to drive architectural decisions across organizational boundaries with multiple stakeholders having competing priorities. Track record of defining and enforcing quality gates, telemetry pipelines, observability frameworks, and data-backed engineering decisions. Experience with AI/ML integration in systems software — understanding of LLM consumption patterns, embedding-based retrieval, and AI-native platform design. Methodical analytical skills with a systematic and structured approach to software design and architecture. Confident and articulate in expressing ideas to mixed audiences including senior leadership with varying views and challenges. A sense of personal ownership and accountability, together with the ability to develop and deliver to deadlines while managing stakeholder expectations across Windows releases. Self-motivated with a dependable drive for reaching across teams and organizations to make progress collaboratively.