Principal Engineering Manager, Minecraft

Microsoft•Redmond, WA

6d•Remote

About The Position

At Mojang Studios, the creators of Minecraft, we are on a mission to build a better world through the power of play. Play is at the heart of everything we do, from the relentless experimentation of our community to its use as an essential teaching tool in classrooms. We enable millions to create and play together, connect people across the globe, and foster a passionate community. Our goal is for the Mojang Studios team to be as diverse as our community, ensuring everyone feels included in Minecraft and sees themselves in what we make. In this role, you will lead the Engineering Systems team for Minecraft Bedrock. You will own the build pipelines, CI/CD systems, test frameworks, and DevOps infrastructure that hundreds of engineers depend on daily. Your focus will be on driving system reliability, simplicity, and observability, while also building and developing a high-performing team. If you are passionate about developer productivity, DevOps excellence, and enabling game teams to ship with confidence, we encourage you to apply. The people of Mojang Studios are what make this place special, and when you join, you’ll be in the company of incredibly bright, warm, and creative individuals working toward a single goal.

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, or Python OR equivalent experience.

Nice To Haves

Experience leading engineering systems, DevOps, or build/release infrastructure teams in a large-scale software environment.
Technical depth in CI/CD pipelines, build systems, test automation, and infrastructure-as-code (e.g., GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, CMake, YAML).
Demonstrated ability to take an ambiguous, complex area and drive clarity - figuring out what needs to be done, educating others on what/why/how, and leading through implementation.
Track record of building and developing high-performing engineering teams, including hiring, coaching, and managing performance.
Experience with game development or large C++ codebases and the unique build/test challenges they present.
Familiarity with DevOps/SRE (Site Reliability Engineering) metrics (DORA (DevOps Research and Assessment) metrics, availability, MTTD, MTTR) and a data-driven approach to improving developer productivity.
Experience with device provisioning, multi-platform testing (console, mobile, desktop, server), and managed test infrastructure.

Responsibilities

Lead and develop the Engineering Systems team - recruit, coach, and retain top talent; set clear direction and priorities; foster a culture of ownership, transparency, and continuous improvement.
Own the reliability and performance of Minecraft's build and CI/CD systems - drive full observability (monitoring, telemetry, alerts), reduce system complexity, and hold the team accountable to KPIs including availability, MTTD (Mean Time to Detect), MTTR (Mean Time to Repair), build/test time, and failure rate.
Architect engineering systems end-to-end - make decisions across GitHub, Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, CMake, FastBuild, VCPKG, test frameworks, device provisioning, and release pipelines.
Partner across the studio to unblock engineering teams - ensure developers can validate locally, merge to main with confidence, and ship continuously; drive early socialization of changes.
Drive DevOps and SRE best practices - automate everything, work incrementally, detect issues quickly; establish and support engineering best practices covering simplicity, modularity, testability, and observability.