Software Engineer II - Voice Agent

Overview Microsoft Azure Voice AI | Microsoft Foundry Agent Platform Join our innovative Azure Voice AI team, where we are building voice, avatar, and voice agent technologies as foundational capabilities of the Microsoft Foundry Agent Platform. Our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet with human‑like, diverse, and delightful AI voices, avatars, and voice‑first agents, enabling natural and effective interactions across devices, applications, and platforms. We are seeking passionate and talented engineers to join our growing team. In this role, you will work on core voice agent technologies, spanning system design, engineering, integration, and continuous refinement of speech, avatar, and agent components in production environments. You will collaborate closely with experts across AI, platform engineering, and product teams to deliver end‑to‑end voice agent solutions that scale across Microsoft products and partners. Responsibilities • Design and build voice and speech technologies (e.g., ASR, TTS, real‑time interaction pipelines) that power voice agents within the Microsoft Foundry Agent Platform • Implement and evolve voice agent capabilities, including real‑time speech processing, multimodal orchestration, and agent runtime integration • Develop and integrate talking avatar technologies, supporting both zero‑shot and customized experiences • Apply and adapt modern generative AI technologies (including diffusion and language modeling) where appropriate, with an emphasis on engineering robustness and system integration • Collaborate with cross‑functional teams to integrate voice agents, speech services, and avatar components into platforms, SDKs, and end‑to‑end applications • Continuously improve system latency, quality, scalability, and reliability in real‑world deployments • Stay current with industry and research advancements in voice AI, agentic systems, and generative technologies, and translate them into practical solutions • Contribute to engineering excellence through design reviews, code reviews, and shared best practices Qualifications Required Qualifications • Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or a related technical field AND 2+ years of professional software engineering experience • Strong coding skills in one or more languages such as C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python • Experience working with machine learning–powered systems, platforms, or services (model development experience is a plus but not required) Preferred Qualifications • Background in speech processing, natural language processing (NLP), computer vision, or real‑time systems • Familiarity with generative AI technologies (e.g., diffusion, autoregressive approaches), model integration, or optimization • Experience building or integrating voice agents, AI services, or large‑scale distributed systems • Strong problem‑solving skills with a systems‑thinking mindset • Effective communication skills and experience working in cross‑functional teams 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.