Principal Software Engineer

Security represents the most critical priorities for our customers in a world awash in digital threats, regulatory scrutiny, and estate complexity. Microsoft Security aspires to make the world a safer place for all. We want to reshape security and empower every user, customer, and developer with a security cloud that protects them with end to end, simplified solutions. The Microsoft Security organization accelerates Microsoft's mission and bold ambitions to ensure that our company and industry is securing digital technology platforms, devices, and clouds in our customers' heterogeneous environments, as well as ensuring the security of our own internal estate. Our culture is centered on embracing a growth mindset, a theme of inspiring excellence, and encouraging teams and leaders to bring their best each day. In doing so, we create life-changing innovations that impact billions of lives around the world.

Our team is growing and we are looking to fill the role of Principal Software Engineer - Graph Change Notifications. As a Principal Software Engineer you will work with Microsoft Graph Change Notifications (MGCN)—a mission-critical platform that delivers real-time change alerts across Microsoft 365 workloads. MGCN supports high-throughput, low-latency delivery via Webhooks, Event Hubs, and Event Grid, servicing over 350 billion monthly requests. The platform plays a pivotal role in enabling secure, scalable, and resilient event-driven architectures, powering scenarios such as workflow automation, compliance monitoring, and data synchronization. Candidates with experience in distributed systems, event streaming, and Graph API integrations will thrive in this environment.

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.

• Design and implement scalable event-driven architectures leveraging Microsoft Graph Change Notifications (MGCN) to support real-time data synchronization, compliance monitoring, and workflow automation across Microsoft 365 workloads.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with product managers, security engineers, and partner teams to define and refine requirements, ensuring MGCN integrations meet performance, reliability, and privacy standards.
• Drive innovation in distributed systems and cloud services, applying deep technical expertise to build resilient, low-latency, high-throughput notification pipelines using technologies like Azure Event Hubs, Event Grid, and Webhooks.
• Lead operational excellence efforts, including monitoring, alerting, and incident response for MGCN services, ensuring high availability and minimal disruption to downstream consumers.
• Mentor and support engineering peers, fostering a culture of technical excellence, continuous learning, and inclusive collaboration within the team and broader identity platform organization.

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.

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.
• Citizenship & Citizenship Verification: This role will require access to information that is controlled for export under export control regulations, potentially under the U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations or Export Administration Regulations, the EU Dual Use Regulation, and/or other export control regulations. As a condition of employment, the successful candidate will be required to provide proof of citizenship, U.S. permanent residency, or other protected status (e.g., under 8 U.S.C. § 1324b(a)(3)) for assessment of eligibility to access the export-controlled information.  To meet this legal requirement, and as a condition of employment, the successful candidate's citizenship will be verified with a valid passport. Lawful permanent residents, refugees, and asylees may verify status using other documents, where applicable."  
• Citizenship & Citizenship Verification: This position requires verification of U.S. citizenship due to citizenship- based legal restrictions. Specifically, this position supports United states federal, state, and/or local(or applicable country) United States government agency customers and is subject to certain citizenship-based restrictions where required or permitted by applicable law. To meet this legal requirement, citizenship will be verified via a valid passport.   

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 8+ 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 with Distributed Services
• Coding and debugging skills from prior work on distributed systems.
• API design and engineering for scale.
• Exposure and/or experience with Azure or other cloud technologies.
• Security experience.
• Demonstrated ability to deliver secure, scalable, and observable services, including experience with authentication/authorization (e.g., OAuth, Managed Identities), telemetry pipelines, and live site operations in a production environments.

#MSFTSecurity, #IdentityJobs

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:

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.