Principal Consultant, Apps & AI

Join Industry Solutions Delivery to lead complex, AI-centric customer engagements from discovery through production. As the Principal Consultant, Apps & AI, you will combine hands-on engineering depth, consulting judgment, and accountable delivery leadership to turn ambiguous business needs into secure, governed solutions using Microsoft Azure AI and modern application platforms. You will lead customer and technical teams, shape delivery plans and statements of work, manage risks and dependencies, validate AI-assisted outputs, and create reusable patterns that accelerate customer value. 

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more, and we’re dedicated to this mission across every aspect of our company. Our culture is centered on embracing a growth mindset and encouraging teams and leaders to bring their best each day. Join us and help shape the future of the world. 

• Lead complex AI engineering and application-development engagements from discovery through production, owning delivery decisions and customer outcomes. 
• Serve as the senior technical leader for complex AI transformation engagements, guiding multidisciplinary consulting and engineering teams. 
• Architect and deliver enterprise-scale AI, agentic AI, and cloud-native solutions leveraging Azure AI, Copilot, and modern application platforms. 
• Translate business objectives into executable delivery strategies, technical roadmaps, and scalable solution architectures while managing risk, resources, and stakeholder expectations. 
• Establish technical governance across security, Responsible AI, quality, scalability, operational readiness, and platform reliability. 
• Shape and grow consulting opportunities through contributions to solution strategy, estimates, technical proposals, and SOW development. 
• Drive AI-first delivery transformation by leveraging GitHub Copilot, Microsoft Copilot, agentic workflows, and AI-assisted engineering practices to improve productivity, accelerate delivery, enhance quality, and scale consulting impact. 
• Build organizational capability by mentoring technical talent and developing reusable frameworks, accelerators, and AI-first delivery methodologies. 
• Serve as a trusted advisor to executive stakeholders, driving strategic alignment, executive sponsorship, and successful business outcomes across customer organizations. 

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Engineering or related field AND 6+ years leadership experience in relevant area of business application architecture, and enterprise solution delivery, leading large-scale cloud and AI transformation initiatives. 
  • OR equivalent experience. 

Preferred Qualifications:

• 8+ years' experience modern application solutions, leading multidisciplinary teams from strategy and architecture through implementation. 
• Deep hands-on expertise in modern application development, cloud-native architectures, distributed systems, microservices, DevOps, security, identity, and operational excellence. 
• Experience designing and implementing Generative AI and agentic AI solutions using Azure AI Foundry, agentic frameworks, RAG architectures, and orchestration patterns. 
• Demonstrated success leading customer-facing consulting engagements, driving architecture decisions, mitigating delivery risk, and achieving measurable business outcomes. 
• Exceptional stakeholder management, executive communication, and consulting skills, with the ability to influence C-level and senior technology leaders. 
• Technical or Professional Certification in the relevant domain. 

Technology Consulting IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $124,500 - $214,600 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 $154,500 - $231,700 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

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.