Member of Technical Staff, Microsoft Robotics (Platform)
Microsoft · Washington · $85,400–$168,100 (stated in the posting)
OverviewMicrosoft’s Discovery and Quantum (MDQ) division develops and delivers advanced artificial intelligence (AI), cloud-enabled capabilities, and strategic technologies to help solve the world’s major challenges. From accelerating scientific discovery with advanced AI tools, to pioneering breakthroughs in quantum computing, to advancing robotics and AI capabilities that drive real-world impact, joining MDQ means building the future, partnering with fast-moving innovators, and operating in a high-impact, mission-driven environment.
At Microsoft Robotics within MDQ, we build and deploy technologies that enable people, robots, and AI agents to collaborate and achieve more.
We are building Microsoft’s platform for physical intelligence—an integrated robotics software and AI platform that brings together humans, robots, and agents through robotics AI models, innovative teaming solutions and experiences, physically grounded agentic AI workflows, trustworthy test and evaluation, and real-world customer-focused validation. Built on Microsoft’s core platforms and delivered through and with a global ecosystem of partners and customers, this platform accelerates AI for the physical world and helps robotics solutions move from experimentation to reliable, scaled deployment.
We are hiring a Member of Technical Staff to contribute to the design, development, and testing of core infrastructure components of the Microsoft Robotics platform, including the Software Development Kits (SDKs), cloud services, edge runtimes, developer tooling, and agent orchestration layers that enable people, AI agents, and robots to operate together across end-to-end mission workflows. In this role, you will build well-scoped features with guidance from experienced engineers, explore design options, and develop your skills in robotics software systems while helping bring autonomy capabilities to life.
Responsibilities
Implement and test features within core platform components with guidance, including robotics SDKs, cloud-hosted Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), edge runtimes, and agent orchestration frameworks that enable developers and partners to compose interoperable autonomy capabilities (perception, planning, control, multi-agent coordination) into deployable mission workflows.
Contribute to platform extensibility and integration features using established patterns, helping integrate, version, test, and deploy first-party autonomy capabilities, first- and third-party models, partner hardware systems, and customer-specific logic across cloud and edge environments.
Develop and test components of data infrastructure for the robotics lifecycle, such as instrumentation libraries, data acquisition services, human-in-the-loop workflows, and dataset versioning and curation pipelines, applying established data quality practices to real-world and synthetic/simulated data with guidance from the team.
Apply established security, compatibility, and performance practices to assigned features with guidance, including authentication and authorization across cloud-edge boundaries, API versioning and backward compatibility, and multi-tenant isolation. Help test and investigate performance against the latency requirements of real-time robotic control loops.
Help improve the developer experience for the Microsoft Robotics platform by contributing Command Line Interface (CLI) features, SDK functionality, documentation, sample code, and inner-loop workflow improvements, following team patterns and incorporating feedback from internal developers and external partners.
Use AI-assisted development tools, such as GitHub Copilot, and agentic coding workflows to improve engineering productivity and software quality. Contribute to agent-based engineering solutions that automate repetitive tasks, accelerate investigation and root cause analysis, and strengthen testing, validation, and operational reliability, applying team standards for code review and verification of AI-generated changes.
Collaborate with autonomy, simulation, and evaluation teams to understand requirements and implement and test assigned features in platform primitives (compute orchestration, data routing, model serving, experiment tracking), helping support the performance, reliability, and reproducibility needs of Machine Learning (ML) training, sim-to-real transfer, and online evaluation workloads.
Participate in technical design and code reviews, contribute to design documentation for assigned features, and incorporate feedback from experienced engineers. Apply team standards for code quality, testing, and operational readiness, and communicate progress, questions, and blockers.
Other:
Qualifications
Required Qualifications
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, or related technical discipline with proven experience 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 Qualifications
Master's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field with proven experience coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
OR 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.
Experience contributing to software projects involving developer tools, SDKs, APIs, or distributed systems through coursework, personal projects, internships, research, open-source contributions, or professional work.
Experience coding in one or more of C++, Rust, Go, or Python, with an interest in systems-level components, tooling, data pipelines, or ML integration and an emphasis on clear, maintainable, testable code.
Experience using AI-assisted development tools, such as GitHub Copilot, including exposure to agentic coding workflows, with an emphasis on reviewing, testing, and validating AI-generated code.
Ability to compare and communicate the strengths and weaknesses of design options, considering factors such as latency, reliability, safety, and maintainability, and to incorporate feedback from others.
Familiarity with cloud services and distributed systems concepts, such as microservices, containerized workloads (e.g., Kubernetes), APIs, or CI/CD; exposure to Azure is a plus.
Familiarity with API design and integration concepts, such as versioning and backward compatibility, and an interest in learning how multi-tenant platforms support internal developers and external partners.
Familiarity with robotics middleware (ROS/ROS2), real-time systems, or edge computing, and an interest in learning how latency, reliability, and safety requirements influence software deployed to physical systems.
Understanding of agentic AI architectures, including agent orchestration, tool use, multi-agent coordination, and human-in-the-loop workflows, and how they apply to physical systems.
Familiarity with ML infrastructure including model serving (ONNX, TensorRT, Triton), training orchestration, experiment tracking, or feature stores, particularly in the context of deploying learned models to edge devices.
Exposure to simulation tools, digital twins, or automated testing, with an interest in using physics-based simulation to validate robotics software and catch regressions.
#MicrosoftRobotics #MDQ
Software 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
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.