Principal Forward Deployed Engineer - Technical Program Management

Location: United States, multiple locations; remote with 0 days per week in-office. Travel of up to 25% may be required.

Salary: USD $142,800–$274,800 gross annual base pay across the U.S.; USD $188,000–$304,200 in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City metropolitan area.

Company

Microsoft Frontier Company Engineering delivers production-ready solutions for complex organizations through a customer-embedded Forward Deployed Engineering model.

What you will do

• Shape customer opportunities and translate business needs into actionable technical approaches.
• Build and deliver production-grade solutions in customer environments with end-to-end ownership.
• Accelerate time to value by delivering iterative, high-impact solutions in ambiguous and fast-moving environments.
• Engage senior stakeholders, build trust, align priorities, and guide technical and business decisions.
• Tailor solutions to industry and customer context rather than applying generic approaches.
• Prepare and transition work to FDE crews with clear scope and technical direction across the engagement lifecycle.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree and 6+ years of experience in engineering, product or technical program management, data analysis, or product development, or equivalent experience.
• 3+ years of experience managing cross-functional or cross-team projects.
• Experience reading or writing code is preferred, including documentation and product demos.
• Experience in customer-facing technical roles such as consulting, solutions engineering, or field engineering is preferred.
• Experience with AI/ML technologies, cloud architecture, data engineering, and AI tools or workflows is preferred.
• Microsoft cannot sponsor a work visa for this role.

Nice to have

• Bachelor’s degree and 12+ years of relevant experience, or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of experience managing cross-functional or cross-team projects.
• Experience partnering directly with customers or internal stakeholders to deliver solutions end-to-end.
• Comfort with travel of up to 25%.

Culture & Benefits

• Customer-embedded engineering focused on shipping production-ready solutions quickly.
• Growth mindset, innovation, collaboration, respect, integrity, accountability, and inclusion.
• Potential eligibility for benefits and additional compensation.
• Applications are accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled, with the role open for at least five days.