Principal Software Engineer

Overview

Help build the cloud infrastructure that powers the next generation of artificial intelligence. You will join the Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) team, building and operating managed Kubernetes services that help customers run cloud-native applications at scale. You will partner across engineering teams to make these services more secure, reliable, and efficient for demanding workloads.

As a Principal Software Engineer on the AKS team, you will lead the architecture and delivery of cloud infrastructure capabilities that support artificial intelligence workloads. You will guide complex technical decisions across teams, translate customer needs into engineering plans, and remain hands-on in implementation, testing, deployment, and live-site improvements. This opportunity will allow you to deepen your expertise in large-scale distributed systems, expand your cross-team technical leadership, and advance your cloud reliability and security skills.

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.

Responsibilities

• Partner with customers and engineering teams to define requirements for Azure Kubernetes Service capabilities supporting artificial intelligence workloads, and translate complex scenarios into coordinated engineering plans.
• Own and lead architecture for complex distributed-system components, evaluate trade-offs across security, reliability, scalability, performance, and cost, and align cross-team dependencies and design decisions.
• Lead by example through hands-on development of extensible, maintainable, well-tested, secure, and performant software, and improve the responsible use of artificial intelligence tools across the software development lifecycle.
• Define test strategies across components, mentor engineers in automated and security testing, and improve end-to-end validation to prevent regressions and raise solution quality.
• Lead automation of deployment and operational processes, establish safe rollout and rollback practices, and improve engineering tools and workflows across teams.
• Strengthen service observability and operational readiness, participate in on-call operations, lead investigation of complex production issues, and drive systemic improvements from incident learnings.
• Review complex designs and code, mentor engineers across teams, and advance shared engineering practices while upholding security, privacy, and compliance standards.

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#, Go, or Java
• OR equivalent experience.

Other Requirements

• 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

• 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#, Go, or Java
• OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 12+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C++, C#, Go, or Java
• OR equivalent experience.
• 3+ years of experience developing or operating production Kubernetes-based services.
• 2+ years of experience leading delivery of a production cloud service or infrastructure feature across multiple engineering teams.

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Pay and benefits

Software Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142,800 - $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:

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.