Principal Software Engineering Manager

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Azure is one of the fastest-growing businesses in Microsoft’s history. The Azure Core team is at the heart of this growth, building and managing the foundational platform that powers compute, storage, and networking services. We’re excited to offer you the opportunity to help shape the future of cloud computing—come join us and learn more!

Our team, Azure Host Storage, is responsible for delivering the Storage Virtualization platform that supports Azure Virtual Machines (VMs), Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), and Containers. We own the entire storage stack on the Azure Host, including input/output (IO) handling, data caching, throttling, quality of service (QoS), data encryption, and hardware offloading of IO processing. Our team has built the interposer, storage virtualization for the next generation of ultra-fast, industry-leading local Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) Solid-State Drives (SSDs) with Azure Boost, which offers 36 gigabytes per second (GBps) throughput and 6.6 million input/output operations per second (IOPS).

As a Principal Software Engineering Manager in the Azure Boost Solid-State Drive (SSD) team, you will lead the design and delivery of cutting-edge engineering innovations aimed at significantly improving storage performance, enhancing platform reliability, and reducing cost of goods sold (COGS) at cloud scale. You will have the opportunity to leverage the latest advancements in Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) technologies—such as PCIe Generation 5 (Gen5) and beyond—to architect and deliver next-generation Azure Boost SSD solutions that meet the demanding needs of cloud-scale workloads. You will lead and mentor a high-performing team of passionate engineers, driving technical excellence and fostering a culture of innovation as you architect solutions that seamlessly offload NVMe SSD functionality into next-generation silicon platforms. Your leadership will be instrumental in shaping the future of Azure's storage stack—delivering scalable, ultra-low latency storage solutions with millions of IOPS per virtual machine (VM)—while collaborating cross-functionally with hardware, firmware, and platform teams.

Microsoft’s 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.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, or related technical discipline AND 6+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, or Rust
  • OR equivalent experience.
• 4+ years of experience in developing cloud scale production software.
• 4+ years of experience with storage, NVMe, PCIe and system design, algorithmic and problem-solving skills.

Other Qualifications:

• 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 thereafter.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
  • OR related technical field AND 10+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, or Rust
  • OR Master's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, or Rust OR equivalent experience.
• 10+ years of experience designing, building and running large scale and highly available cloud services or distributed systems.
• 10+ years of experience working in Kernel Mode Drivers, Storage solutions.
• 4+ years people management experience.

Software Engineering M5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $139,900 - $274,800 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 $188,000 - $304,200 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here: https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay

Microsoft will accept applications for the role until July 22, 2025.

• Lead and mentor team to develop speeds and feeds into next gen PCIe and Silicon platform
• Guides partnership with appropriate stakeholders (e.g., project manager, technical lead) to determine user requirements within and across teams.
• Guides teams and leads identification of dependencies and the development of design documents for a product, application, service, or platform.
• Optimizes, debugs, refactors, and reuses code to improve performance and maintainability, effectiveness, and return on investment (ROI).
• Guides team and acts as an expert for Designated Responsible Individual (DRI) and monitors other engineers across product lines, working on call to monitor system/product/service for degradation, downtime, or interruptions.