Principal Software Engineer - Backend (Large‑Scale Distributed Systems)
Microsoft
GitHub is looking for a Principal Software Engineer focused on backend large scale service design, execution & operations to join the Copilot API team. This role is focused on shaping and building a robust, scalable, and reliable platform that powers GitHub Copilot and its integrations. You will lead the design and evolution of highly available backend services and APIs, ensuring consistent, performant, and safe access at global scale.
The ideal candidate has deep experience building and operating distributed systems in production and is energized by system behaviour, reliability, performance, and cost at scale. You will set technical direction, raise the bar on engineering quality, and drive improvements across service health (SLOs/SLIs), incident response, observability, and capacity planning.
As a Principal Software Engineer on the Copilot API team, you will partner with engineering, product, and partner teams across GitHub to align platform capabilities with product needs and integration patterns. The Copilot API platform underpins the reliability and scalability of Copilot features used by developers worldwide; you will help other teams move faster by providing clear platform interfaces, pragmatic guidance, and scalable architectural patterns.
You will contribute through hands-on implementation of critical paths, thoughtful architecture and design reviews, and strong collaboration within and beyond your team. You’ll identify the highest-leverage opportunities to improve resilience and scalability, de-risk ambiguous technical work, and translate product goals into durable platform investments. We value developer empathy, transparency, and inclusive collaboration, and we believe curiosity, operational rigor, and long-term impact drive great engineering at GitHub.
Responsibilities
Design, develop, test and ship high-quality technical solutions that scale across multiple GitHub services and become intimately familiar with the systems you build and take pride in writing maintainable code.
Provide technical leadership, mentorship, pairing opportunities, and code reviews to encourage the growth of others; support teams in producing extensible and maintainable code, ensuring integration with downstream dependencies and adherence to quality standards.
Own and advocate for the health and quality of the systems that the team builds, including participating in on-call for first responder rotations and live incidents.
Write architecture briefs and proposals and carry out code experiments.
Design and implement APIs to facilitate seamless integration between software components.
Utilize CI/CD tools to set up automated pipelines for continuous integration and delivery.
Collaborate with cross-functional teams and partner with stakeholders and lead discussions for technical solutions, including design and cost considerations.
Create and guide others in 1) developing clear testing plans to assure solution quality, reliability, and performance; 2) defining success metrics; and 3) integrating customer feedback for continuous improvement - all while ensuring system architecture meets security and compliance standards.
Maintain executional and operational excellence within and potentially across teams/organizations.
Apply debugging tools and telemetry to verify assumptions, proactively resolve issues, and optimize code performance and maintainability.
Drive and support technical roadmap that aligns with product goals, ensuring that engineering efforts are strategically prioritized and incorporating the adoption of new technologies and methodologies where applicable.
Qualifications
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field and demonstrated technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python OR equivalent experience.
- Demonstrated experience with large-scale system architecture and design, particularly in cloud-based environments, with a strong understanding of distributed systems and microservices.
Preferred Qualifications
Experience in one or more scripting languages (e.g., Bash, Python, or a similar language), technologies and software platforms, (e.g., Ruby, React, Go, Javascript/typescript, MySQL, cosmosDB, Elasticsearch), front-end frameworks (e.g., React.js), and / or telemetry dashboard (e.g., Datadog, Sentry, Azure Data Explorer).
Experience with cloud environments and/or Cloud Native Compute Foundation (CNCF) concepts.
Experience working closely with product management, design, and other engineering teams to drive cross-functional projects and deliver high-quality products.
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.