Artificial intelligence
10 Microsoft AI engineers
These ten current and former Microsoft AI engineers have held software engineering and technical staff roles at Microsoft AI, according to their profiles. A reader can learn what engineering work at Microsoft AI involves from people who have done it.
Professionals to explore
01—10Adam Smith
LinkedInExperience: Member of Technical Staff (iOS) · Microsoft AI
Member of Technical Staff (iOS) at Microsoft AI since March 2024 in Mountain View. Former Member of Technical Staff, Product Engineer (Mobile) at Inflection AI (2024), Software Engineer at Notable (2019–2023) and Principal Architect, Mobile Experience at HealthTap (2017–2019), per the profile.
Alex Hale
LinkedInExperience: Member of Technical Staff · Microsoft AI
Member of Technical Staff at Microsoft AI since October 2024, based in Seattle; the profile says the work is building products on top of machine learning models, currently Microsoft's AI copilots and conversational search. Former Software Developer 2 - Microsoft Turing at Microsoft (2022–2024) and Software Developer - Microsoft Turing (2021–2022).
Betty Cheng
LinkedInExperience: Principal Member of Technical Staff · Microsoft AI
Principal Member of Technical Staff at Microsoft AI since March 2026 in Redmond; the role listing describes improving the Copilot experience through evaluations. Former Software Engineer, ML at Meta (2025–2026), Principal ML Engineer at SentinelOne (2023–2025) and Principal Applied Scientist at Microsoft (2019–2022).
Cecilia Zeng
LinkedInExperience: Member of Technical Staff · Microsoft AI
Member of Technical Staff at Microsoft AI since October 2024, in the San Francisco Bay Area; the role listing describes full-stack work on Copilot experiences across Android, backend services, prompting and evals. Former Software Engineer II at Microsoft (2022–2024) and Software Engineer at Ford Motor Company (2019–2022).
Guofu Zhong
LinkedInExperience: Principal Software Engineer · Microsoft AI
Principal Software Engineer at Microsoft AI since May 2025, based in Bellevue; the role listing describes serving as tech lead for an agentic platform with reusable capabilities for AIGC generation and feed recommendation. Former Staff Software Engineer at TikTok (2023–2025) and Senior Software Engineer at Microsoft (2016–2023).
Pascal Kesseli
LinkedInExperience: Principal Software Engineer, Member of Technical Staff · Microsoft AI
Former Principal Software Engineer, Member of Technical Staff at Microsoft AI (2026) in Zürich; the role listing describes software and research engineering on MAI training infrastructure. Now Research Engineer at Meta since August 2026, and former Staff Research Engineer at Meta (2025); the profile also lists Co-CEO of BEO IT AG.
Timothy Pham
LinkedInExperience: Software Engineer II, Microsoft AI · Microsoft
Software Engineer II, Microsoft AI at Microsoft since August 2025, in the Seattle area; the role listing describes developing high-performance, scalable services for the Microsoft AI infrastructure platform, focused on LLM usage and AI agents. Former Software Engineer at Visa (2022–2025).
Usaid Bin Shafqat
LinkedInExperience: Software Engineer · Microsoft AI
Software Engineer at Microsoft AI since March 2025 in Seattle; the role listing says building AI @Copilot Search, and the headline mentions building with AI and Search at Microsoft AI. Former Software Engineer at Microsoft (2023–2025), with an earlier Microsoft software engineering stint in 2022.
Zhe Dong
LinkedInExperience: Member of Technical Staff · Microsoft AI
Member of Technical Staff at Microsoft AI since December 2025 in Zurich; the role listing describes being DRI and Tech Lead for Production Inference & Serving on the Microsoft SuperIntelligence Team. Former Partner / Director of Science at Microsoft AI (2025) and Research Engineer at Google (2018–2025).
Zhe Jia
LinkedInExperience: Member of Technical Staff · Microsoft AI
Member of Technical Staff at Microsoft AI since August 2024 in Chicago, with a headline naming Microsoft Superintelligence and the role listing naming AI infra. Former Research Engineer at Citadel (2018–2024), R&D Engineer at Citadel (2017–2018) and Senior R&D Engineer at Alibaba Cloud (2014–2016).
Choose the right perspective
Match the person's area, such as Copilot product engineering, mobile apps, evaluations, AI infrastructure, training infrastructure or inference serving, to your question, and check whether they are still at Microsoft AI. Their earlier employers can also help you find someone who has built systems like yours.
Questions to take into the conversation
- 01How do engineers at Microsoft AI build and ship features for a consumer AI assistant like Copilot?
- 02What does it take to build production inference and training infrastructure for in-house frontier models?
- 03How do teams use evaluations to improve an AI assistant's quality before and after launch?
Reaching Microsoft AI engineers
How can I contact one of these Microsoft AI engineers?
Pick one of the 10 people on this page and choose "Book a paid call", or describe your project to find others. You offer a fee for a 15-minute call or a written answer, Instant Expert finds the person's work email and sends the invitation, and they decide whether to accept. The list covers 2 companies: Microsoft AI and Microsoft, based on profile data retrieved on October 8, 2026. Being listed here doesn't mean someone has agreed to take calls.
How much does it cost to reach Microsoft AI engineers?
You choose the offer, starting at $5 per person. It includes Instant Expert's 20% fee, so an offer that pays the person $100 costs you $125. You're charged only when the person books the call or sends the answer.
What if they don't reply?
You pay nothing. Instant Expert sends follow-up reminders, and if the person hasn't booked or answered within 7 days, the request expires and any hold on your card is released. You can invite several of the 10 people on this list at once and cap your total spend, so you pay only for the ones who accept.
Can an AI agent ask one of these Microsoft AI engineers a question?
Yes. An agent with a USDC wallet on Base can ask one question without an Instant Expert account. It names the person, for example by the LinkedIn URL on this page, and pays per ask over x402 (HTTP 402). The person answers in writing or by voice note, and if nobody answers within 7 days, the payment goes back to the wallet automatically. x402 docs
About this directory
This is a professional research starting point based on business profile data retrieved on . Titles and companies reflect that source snapshot and may describe past or present roles. Check the linked profiles for current details. Inclusion does not imply Instant Expert membership or availability.
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