Senior Microsoft AI Engineer - Copilot, Foundry & Power Automate

We are a dynamic startup focused on developing AI-powered business applications, integrations, and automations using Microsoft technologies. Our goal is to transform business requirements into effective AI assistants, reliable workflows, and connected systems that deliver measurable results. We operate with a hybrid delivery model combining internal ownership and outsourced development. We are seeking an experienced Microsoft AI Engineer who thrives in hands-on implementation, can coordinate external specialists, and is eager to contribute to building and leading a growing team. This is a full-time, long-term remote position with a startup-aligned salary and significant growth potential.

Key Responsibilities

- Develop and maintain AI assistants and agents using Microsoft Copilot Studio and Microsoft Foundry.
- Identify and implement practical uses for Microsoft 365 Copilot within business workflows.
- Connect AI solutions to relevant business data, systems, and APIs while ensuring compliance with permissions and data boundaries.
- Design and build Power Automate workflows featuring validation, exception handling, monitoring, and recovery mechanisms.
- Integrate Microsoft 365, Teams, SharePoint, Dataverse, Microsoft Graph, external APIs, and other business platforms.
- Create custom connectors or supporting code as required by projects.
- Evaluate AI output quality, including grounding, failure modes, latency, and operational costs.
- Establish human review and approval processes for critical automated actions.
- Independently manage Microsoft 365, Azure, and Power Platform environments, including user and permission administration.
- Configure and oversee GitHub-connected Power Platform solutions, managing repositories, authentication, source control, branching, reviews, and deployments.
- Manage solution lifecycles across development, testing, and production environments, including dependencies and recovery procedures.
- Maintain secure application identities, credentials, and access configurations with clear ownership.
- Monitor platform health, investigate issues, maintain operational documentation, and control licensing and cloud costs.
- Translate business requirements into clear tasks, milestones, and acceptance criteria.
- Manage project scope, priorities, risks, and stakeholder communications.
- Coordinate outsourced developers, review deliverables, and maintain technical ownership.
- Mentor colleagues through demonstrations, code reviews, and knowledge sharing.
- Ensure solutions remain maintainable, proportional to business needs, and aligned with startup budget constraints.

Required Qualifications

- Proven experience delivering production solutions using Copilot Studio, Microsoft Foundry, and Power Automate.
- Practical knowledge of Microsoft 365 Copilot and its application in business workflows.
- Experience building AI agents connected to business data, tools, and APIs.
- Ability to evaluate AI-generated outputs, including handling unreliable or unsupported results.
- Strong expertise in Power Automate cloud flows, connectors, expressions, approvals, and troubleshooting.
- Experience integrating SharePoint, Teams, Dataverse, Microsoft Graph, or similar platforms.
- Working knowledge of Microsoft Entra ID, application permissions, authentication, and secure credential management.
- Ability to write and review supporting code or scripts in languages such as Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, or PowerShell.
- Demonstrated experience administering Microsoft environments independently with responsibility for reliability and continuous improvement.
- Hands-on experience managing Power Platform solutions connected to GitHub and familiarity with GitHub Actions or similar CI/CD workflows.
- Strong understanding of environment separation, managed/unmanaged solutions, dependencies, and environment-specific configurations.
- Previous responsibility for technical project delivery, including planning and stakeholder communication.
- Proven leadership skills in mentoring, coordinating distributed teams, or leading developers.
- Ability to take ownership of technical challenges, communicate business impacts clearly, and drive improvements to completion.
- Capacity to work independently and prioritize effectively within a startup budget.

Preferred Qualifications and Benefits

- Experience delivering Microsoft AI or automation projects in startup or consulting environments.
- Familiarity with building retrieval workflows using documented knowledge sources with permission-aware access.
- Experience with Power Apps, Azure services, SQL databases, or Azure DevOps.
- Knowledge of Azure API Management, including AI gateway capabilities, authentication, monitoring, and cost control.
- Experience with Azure Key Vault, Azure Monitor, Application Insights, and Azure AI Search.
- Skills in building and maintaining Power BI reports and dashboards, including Power Query, data modeling, DAX, scheduled refresh, workspace permissions, and row-level security.
- Ability to connect reporting and analytics to operational workflows and business decisions.
- Track record of replacing fragile workflows with maintainable, easy-to-operate solutions.
- Experience coordinating outsourced implementation while retaining internal technical ownership.
- Proficiency in using AI development tools effectively and recognizing when generated solutions add unnecessary complexity.

This role offers full remote work with a long-term perspective, ownership across AI implementation and automation, opportunities to mentor and build a distributed team, and close collaboration with startup leadership. Compensation will align with startup resources and experience, with substantial growth potential. Strong performers may advance to leadership roles such as Microsoft AI Team Lead, Solutions Architect, or Head of AI & Automation. Our remote work setup includes a time-tracking tool that monitors activity and captures screenshots, which will be explained during recruitment. Candidates should be comfortable with this arrangement.

We encourage early applications to discuss how you can help shape our AI and automation practice. Applicants should provide a CV and a brief overview of relevant projects, including Copilot Studio or Microsoft Foundry solutions delivered, Power Automate workflows implemented, Microsoft environment administration, project or team leadership experience, and coordination of outsourced contributors. Public links and anonymized examples are welcome; please avoid sharing confidential information.