Principal Software Engineer

Overview

Are you a customer-obsessed, AI-curious problem-solver who thrives in an inclusive, collaborative global team? The Azure CXP team's mission is to transform Microsoft Cloud customers into fans. Through our deep engineering engagements with customers and teams across Microsoft, we analyze and amplify customer needs and drive the vision to improve Cloud quality, security, and reliability. Our culture of growth mindset and empowerment are central to who we are and how we work. We are customer-obsessed problem-solvers. We orchestrate deep engagements in areas like incident management, support, and enablement. We analyze and amplify those customer voices, both within our own team, and across the Cloud + AI team, bringing the customer connection to the Quality vision for Azure. We innovate ways to scale what we learn across our customer base. Diversity and inclusion are central to who we are, how we work, and what we enable our customers to achieve. We know that empowering our customers starts with empowering our team to show up authentically, work in ways that are best for them, and achieve their career goals. Azure Reliability team is a multidisciplinary engineering organization part of CXP dedicated to making, "Azure the safest and most reliable Cloud". Azure Reliability teams strive to improve reliability fundamentals via software engineering operational improvement, preferring long-lasting platform improvements delivered as engineering projects over repetitive manual operations. We contribute to the product fundamentals and architecture, share knowledge, and code, and prefer reuse over re-invention, always looking for ways to make what we build useful to multiple teams and products. We are not looking for people who know it all, we are looking for people who want to learn it all. We value the input of people who aren't afraid to learn all the time and embrace mistakes as they continuously improve both our services and themselves. If you are excited by this type of challenge and you love to work in groups of people who are similarly excited: come join us Every day, our customers stake their business and reputation on our cloud. You can help #AzCXP provide our customers with the world-class cloud services they need to succeed. This role supports flexible work from home with occasional in-office meetings. 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

As a Principal Software Engineer in one of our Azure SRE teams, you will be responsible for improving the reliability of key Azure products. The Azure SRE key focus areas are:

• Defining system reliability goals through Service Level Objectives (SLOs). Enhancing production posture with targeted improvements in observability and operability (telemetry, alerting, incident/change management, safe deployment practices).

• Building reusable automation and processes that help multiple teams meet their reliability goals. Influencing product architecture and roadmaps to ensure customer-experienced reliability is a core design principle.

• Contributing directly to product code to achieve reliability outcomes. Leveraging AI to proactively detect anomalies, predict incidents, and automate operational workflows - scaling reliability efforts across complex systems.

We are looking for engineers passionate about the above areas who are also interested in:

• Providing technical leadership across multiple Azure teams. Mentoring others on SRE principles, practices, and tools as well as AI usage to boost software development productivity.

• Designing and developing large-scale distributed software services and solutions. Delivering "best-in-class" engineering by ensuring services are modular, secure, reliable, testable, diagnosable, observable, and reusable.

• Collaborating with internal and external partners to support team goals. Balancing pragmatism with vision-driving continuous improvements in process and codebase. Building automation to prevent or remediate service issues before they impact users.

• Driving innovation in large-scale operations by applying cutting-edge AI tools and techniques to reduce operational toil and scale reliability engineering across complex systems. Gaining a working understanding of Microsoft businesses and contributing to cohesive, end-to-end user experiences.

Qualifications

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.

• 5+ years of experience in building, shipping and operating reliable solutions.

• 5+ years of experience with modern distributed software design patterns and cloud systems architecture, including microservices, containers, load balancing, queuing, caching.

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++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python 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++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python OR equivalent experience.

• Familiarity with modern distributed software design patterns and cloud systems architecture, including microservices, containers, load balancing, queuing, caching.

• Experience as a technical lead or engineering manager.

• Experience working on large and unfamiliar codebases (millions of lines of code).

• Experience with open-source projects, Kubernetes, Linux and containers is desired.

• Experience with data technologies (SQL/NoSQL/etc.).

• Experience with Azure is a plus.

• Experience in AI adoption with tools like GitHub Copilot, Azure OpenAI and custom copilots to streamline development and reduce toil. 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 Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.#MSCareerEvents25 #SHPE2025#AfroTech2025

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

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. (https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/accessibility.html)