Principal Data Engineer

Microsoft • Redmond, WA

7h

About The Position

Microsoft’s Path team helps customers along their journey from the initial idea to the final realization of their goals from Idea-to-Plan-to-Done. We are responsible for collaborative Work Management products including Microsoft Project, Planner, To Do, and Visio. With Project and Planner, we help customers collaborate effectively to navigate complexity, determine critical paths, and orchestrate their plans to achieve more. With To Do and Tasks, we help customers capture, prioritize, and complete their aspirations and goals along their path to success. With Visio, we help customers model and conceptualize information pathways through process diagrams, organizational charts, and more to visualize what it is and what it can be. Collectively, we're responsible for an incredible portfolio of products and services that help guide people and organizations along their journey to achieve more. Microsoft, being a leader in AI space, we are heavily investing in building new AI tools, agents, skills, and MCP servers. The Principal Data Engineer will operate as a senior technical leader shaping the data & analytics foundations that power Microsoft Path org’s products and platforms at a global scale. The engineer will collaborate with Product, Engineering, and Data Science stakeholders from multiple teams to analyze data requirements, understand the data flow across existing and new products, differentiate human vs. AI Agent generated data, lead the design of data models, and prepare design specifications for building data pipelines. The Data engineer will be responsible for identifying data sources, building code to extract raw data, and transforming it into formats compatible with downstream consumers. The Data Engineer will develop tools, do performance monitoring, and perform root cause analysis of issues to ensure robust and reliable data pipelines. You will define architectural direction, influence multi-team roadmaps, and set data engineering standards that enable reliable, secure, and scalable analytics for AI-driven products. Additionally, the Data Engineer will deeply understand data governance & compliance needs, and partner with Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs (CELA) to ensure compliance with laws and policies throughout the development process across WW, EU, and GOV clouds. The role involves designing data modeling, data handling procedures, data cleansing or abstractions, implementing solutions to minimize points of failure, and ensuring that all aspects of data management adhere to organizational standards and regulatory requirements. This specific role has the potential to convert into a Data Engg Manager role in future as the team grows. Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. By integrating the power of generative AI with tools for workflow management you will directly contribute to that mission empowering customers to achieve at a pace and scale beyond what has previously been considered possible.

Requirements

• 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.
• 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.

Nice To Haves

• 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.
• Deep experience architecting and operating large-scale distributed data systems in cloud environments, preferably Azure.
• Ability to write clean, working code using core algorithms, data structures, and analytics‑oriented problem‑solving.
• Extensive experience in implementing and optimizing data pipelines and distributed data systems (e.g., Azure Data Lake, Spark, Synapse, SQL databases).
• Understanding of data governance, privacy, lineage, and security best practices, especially within highly regulated or enterprise environments.
• Excellent communication skills to convey complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Expertise with modern data engineering languages and frameworks (e.g., Azure Data Explorer, PySpark, SQL, etc).
• Experience collaborating in cross-functional teams and building consensus among stakeholders with diverse backgrounds (engineering, analytics, product, business).
• Track record of driving innovation in data engineering, including experience leading technical projects and mentoring others.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, monitor, and optimize large-scale, robust data pipelines and architectures that support Microsoft Path products data analytics initiatives.
• Develop scalable ETL/ELT workflows, ensure reliable ingestion, transformation, and storage of high-volume, high-velocity data from diverse sources with different schemas.
• Data Governance & Trust: Enforce best practices for data quality, lineage, security, and compliance.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to define trustworthy data sets and implement rigorous data validation protocols, ensuring analytics are accurate and auditable.
• Cross-functional Collaboration: Work closely with product managers, software engineers, AI researchers, and business stakeholders to build data solutions that accomplish business goals.
• Enable self-service analytics and empower teams by building data models, semantic layers, and tools that streamline access to trusted information.
• Translate ambitious vision into actionable roadmaps and measurable outcomes.
• Mentor senior data engineers and technical leads, guide complex design decisions, and foster a culture of engineering excellence, operational rigor, and continuous learning across the organization.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees