Enter a job title or keyword

Senior Software Engineer VS Code (GitHub CoreAI)

Microsoft


Job Location:

Redmond, WA - USA

Yearly Salary: USD 119800 - 234700
Posted: 6 October 2026 (20 hours ago)
Application Deadline: 3 January 2027
Vacancies: 1 Vacancy

Department:

Software Engineering

Job Summary

Overview

Visual Studio Code is where millions of developers turn ideas into working software. We are looking for a Senior Software Engineer to help build its next generation of editing development and GitHub Copilot experiences. You will help to make complex developer workflows feel simple from everyday coding and debugging to delegating work to AI. This is hands-on product engineering in a large TypeScript and Rust codebase: you will shape a feature or technical areas direction implement it and keep improving it after release. We value engineers who care about how software feels make sound decisions amid ambiguity and learn from what they ship.

About the team

We work in the open with direct feedback from developers and extension authors. You will collaborate with engineers designers researchers and product teams across our team GitHub and Microsoft. We combine community feedback research experiments and engineering judgment to decide what to build. Performance accessibility extensibility security and developer control are part of the product not finishing touches.

Examples of work

The role spans core VS Code and Copilot; illustrative projects include:

  • Improve navigation and editing in large repositories without slowing down startup or typing.
  • Build a Copilot workflow that helps developers delegate a coding task inspect the changes and validate them using VS Codes review testing and debugging tools.
  • Extend VS Code APIs so new capabilities work reliably with existing extensions and remote development environments.
  • Refine our existing engineering process with custom tools fine-tuned for throughput and quality.

Microsofts mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As part of GitHub andCoreAI we build developer tools that materially improve how software is written reviewed and shipped whilemaintaininga culture of ownership rigor and technical excellence.

Microsofts mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset innovate to empower others and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect integrity and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.



Responsibilities
  • Identify product and engineering opportunities helping define what to build through user feedback experimentation and technical insight.
  • Shape technical direction within your area balancing near-term product needs with long-term maintainability.
  • Lead hands-on design implementation testing and delivery of VS Code features coordinating contributors and partner-team dependencies as needed.
  • Own outcomes after release: understand adoption investigate quality issues and use telemetry evaluations and user feedback to guide improvements.
  • Improve responsiveness and reliability through profiling debugging and automated testing; strengthen the tools that let the team experiment and ship confidently.
  • Work in the open: discuss designs publicly investigate community-reported issues and collaborate directly with developers and extension authors.
  • Mentor engineers and improve technical decisions through constructive design and code reviews.


Qualifications

Required Qualifications

  • Bachelors Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 4 years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including but not limited toJavaScript or TypeScript or RUSTOR 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

Preferred Qualifications

  • 5 years of software engineering experience with a track record of independently delivering and maintaining production features or substantial components.
  • Programming and application engineering skills with the ability to become productive in a large TypeScript and Rust codebase.
  • Experience leading technical design and hands-on delivery for complex projects involving multiple contributors within one team or across partner teams.
  • Product and engineering judgment including the ability to turn an ambiguous user problem into a practical maintainable solution.
  • Communication and collaboration skills including working across team boundaries and helping other engineers grow.

We welcome a range of product backgrounds; these are helpful experiences not a checklist. Previous work on developer tools open-source projects or AI products is not required.

  • Experience with TypeScript JavaScript or Rust.
  • Experience building interactive applications with attention to performance accessibility or cross-platform behavior.
  • Experience designing APIs extension points or reusable components.- Experience improving products through direct user feedback telemetry or experiments.
  • Practical familiarity with AI coding tools and judgment about where they help fail or change development workflows.
  • Experience building AI-powered features or contributing to developer tools or open-source projects.

Product and open source




Software Engineering IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $119800 - $234700 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 $160200 - $261000 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:
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.


Required Experience:

IC