Principal Software Engineer

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It is a mobile-first, cloud-first world, and we’re empowering it. Microsoft Azure is at the heart of the Microsoft Cloud, providing the backend infrastructure for hyper-scale, distributed, and dynamic computing. Our team within Azure provides the software platform that enables internal Microsoft services—including Office 365, Bing.com, Xbox Live, Skype, and OneDrive—as well as many external customers to run their large-scale, mission-critical cloud applications for their businesses.

We are looking for a world-class Principal Software Engineer to help us continue to evolve, expand, and define our software platform and infrastructure. Some of the many areas we are tackling include ring 0 (kernel-level) and ring -1 (hypervisor-level) core infrastructure services, five nines (99.999%) reliability, fault tolerance, distributed service monitoring, operational efficiency within the data center hardware lifecycle, performance metrics collection and analysis, alerting, visualization, device operations, and coordination of node diagnostics and repairs.

This is a fun and fast-paced environment and a great opportunity to work on something highly strategic to Microsoft and extremely relevant in the industry. There are very few opportunities in the field of computer science that offer the potential to work at the massive scale we do. If you’re like us and excited about building robust, highly distributed software systems that define the backbone of the Microsoft Cloud, let’s talk.

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 field AND 6+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
  
  • OR equivalent experience.
• 6+ years experience in service development and distributed systems.

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 in service development and distributed systems with coding in languages including, but not limited to C, C++, C#, Java
  • OR Master's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience in service development and distributed systems with coding in languages including, but not limited to C, C++, C#, Java
  • OR equivalent experience.

Software Engineering IC5 - 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 August 8, 2025.

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• Provide new features for Microsoft Cloud internal infrastructure software.
• Keep infrastructure services running and deliver code updates on a regular cadence to improve performance and reliability.
• Collaborates with appropriate stakeholders to determine user requirements for scenarios.
• Acts as a Designated Responsible Individual (DRI) and guides other engineers by developing and following the playbook, working on call to monitor system/product/service for degradation, downtime, or interruptions, alerting stakeholders about status and initiates actions to restore system/product/service for simple and complex problems when appropriate.