Cloud Network Engineers II / Senior Cloud Network Engineers - Network, Optical & Hybrid Cloud

Microsoft • Redmond, WA

4d • $102,100 - $261,000

About The Position

Microsoft Digital (MSD) builds and manages the critical products and services that Microsoft runs on. We pursue bold ideas that advance Microsoft and our customers while helping teams work smarter, faster, and more securely. Our engineers combine deep technical and business expertise, customer insight, and firsthand experience operating Microsoft and industry solutions at global scale.
Within Microsoft Digital, Infrastructure Engineering Services (IES) partners with the business to create innovative, secure, and enterprise-scalable solutions using Microsoft and industry-leading products and services. IES helps maximize productivity, influences the products our customers use, and enables Microsoft’s digital transformation across thousands of employees and partners.
We are hiring for multiple Cloud Network Engineers II and a Senior Cloud Network Engineer for these exciting opportunities in MSD! As a Cloud Network Engineer, you will help design, build, automate, secure, and operate Microsoft’s global enterprise network, including routing and switching, optical transport, corporate hybrid-hosting infrastructure, and connectivity between on-premises lab environments and Azure. You will solve complex infrastructure challenges, improve reliability by identifying and eliminating defects, and partner across engineering, security, product, and customer teams to deliver resilient services at scale.
Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. We bring a growth mindset to our work, innovate to empower others, and collaborate with respect, integrity, and accountability so everyone can thrive at work and beyond.

Requirements

• Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Optical Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field AND 1+ year(s) technical experience in network design, development, and automation OR Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Optical Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field AND 2+ years technical experience in network design, development, and automation OR equivalent experience.
• Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.
• 3+ years of enterprise network design and development experience, including hands-on Layer 2 analysis and troubleshooting of TCP/IP routing and switching.
• Deep knowledge of IPv4/IPv6 and routing protocols such as BGP, OSPF, and IS-IS, including their interaction with MPLS.
• Working knowledge of MPLS technologies and services, including traffic engineering, segment routing, EVPN, L3VPN, and L2VPN across MPLS backbones.
• Experience with overlay and resiliency technologies such as VXLAN and MLAG, and with TCP, UDP, and HTTP/S behavior in distributed environments.
• Hands-on experience with enterprise-grade routing, switching, firewall, and application-delivery platforms; experience with technologies such as Palo Alto Networks and Panorama, Arista, Cisco, and F5 is valued.
• 3+ years of experience automating network provisioning, deployment, operations, monitoring, or validation. Proficiency with Python and/or Ansible in Linux and Windows environments is preferred; exposure to AI-assisted or agentic automation is beneficial.
• 3+ years of experience managing enterprise optical transport systems, with working knowledge of DWDM, CWDM, ROADM, OTN, and fiber-characterization technologies such as OTDR, chromatic dispersion, and polarization mode dispersion.
• Knowledge of network security principles, secure-by-design practices, least-privilege connectivity, and security and compliance controls for enterprise and hybrid-cloud environments.
• Experience designing or operating hybrid connectivity between on-premises networks and Azure infrastructure services, including compute, networking, and storage.
• Experience working in agile, highly complex organizations and supporting large-scale, geo-distributed, highly available enterprise services.
• Program or project management experience planning, designing, deploying, and documenting customer or infrastructure solutions.
• Demonstrated ability to produce clear technical documentation, standard operating procedures, architecture guidance, and customer-facing knowledge resources.
• Demonstrated collaboration, communication, incident-management, and mentoring skills, with the ability to influence across teams and drive work to completion in ambiguous environments.

Nice To Haves

• 5+ years of technical experience in network design, development, and automation; or bachelor’s degree in a related field and 2+ years of relevant experience; or master’s degree in a related field and 1+ year of relevant experience. Advanced-scope candidates may bring 7+ years of experience, including 4+ years with a bachelor’s degree, 3+ years with a master’s degree, or a doctorate in a related field.
• Exposure to AI-assisted or agentic automation is beneficial.

Responsibilities

• Apply knowledge of enterprise networking, field data, and industry trends to engineer, design, implement, and operate global routing, switching, optical, and hybrid-cloud network services.
• Translate security, business, availability, and functional requirements into secure technical architectures that balance cost, interoperability, performance, reliability, and operational supportability.
• Create bills of materials and translate high-level architecture into detailed low-level designs for datacenters, network sites, optical infrastructure, on-premises lab networks, and Azure-connected environments.
• Partner with security teams, application owners, internal customers, product groups, and service leaders to assess connectivity requests and implement appropriate Azure and network technologies.
• Design and implement least-privilege hybrid network topologies that connect internal workloads and on-premises environments to Azure compute, networking, and storage services.
• Participate in design and code reviews, validate solutions against quality and secure-by-design standards, and establish consistent engineering standards across services and workloads.
• Develop automation for provisioning, deployment, validation, operations, monitoring, and quality at scale using scripting, machine-readable network definitions, and emerging capabilities such as agentic AI.
• Manage network and optical deployments through continuous-delivery practices; test and validate devices, configurations, and service changes before and after release.
• Monitor, analyze, debug, and troubleshoot enterprise infrastructure across Layer 2 and Layer 3 networking, routing and switching protocols, transport services, firewalls, load balancers, overlays, and optical systems.
• Participate in on-call and Designated Responsible Individual (DRI) rotations, customer issue intake, and live-site response for availability, security, and compliance incidents; produce root-cause analyses and drive corrective actions.
• Improve service reliability by identifying systemic defects, strengthening observability and operational processes, and working with product development teams to enhance platforms and services.
• Drive adherence to security and compliance objectives while maintaining clear internal and customer-facing documentation, including architecture records, standard operating procedures, and knowledge resources.
• Plan and support large-scale, geo-distributed, highly available enterprise services and coordinate complex initiatives from design through deployment and operational readiness.
• Collaborate across interdependent teams, communicate technical information at the appropriate level for each audience, resolve obstacles and conflicts, and align stakeholders around shared outcomes.
• Mentor engineers, provide and seek actionable feedback, and strengthen team practices in DevOps, live-site response, engineering quality, and continuous improvement.
• Embody our culture and values.

Benefits

• 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

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level