Principal Software Engineer (Architect)

Microsoft•Redmond, WA

About The Position

Microsoft Security is focused on making the world a safer place by securing AI, data, and customers. The User Authentication team within Identity and Network Access is responsible for the authentication platform for all Microsoft clouds (Azure, Microsoft 365, Xbox, Dynamics), handling billions of user sign-ins across various scenarios. As the team evolves towards a unified, AI-first authentication platform, they are seeking an Engineering Leader to architect and drive the next generation of the authentication platform system. This role will focus on enabling secure interactions for users, agents, and digital workers, while maintaining high reliability, performance, and trust. The team encourages experimentation and rapid prototyping, with innovation days and hackathons being part of their culture. The ideal candidate will champion the adoption of AI tools and work with diverse, high-performing teams.

Requirements

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.
Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements.
Must pass the Microsoft background and Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.

Nice To Haves

12+ years of Software Engineering leadership experience
Proven ability to influence significant system changes
Track record of leading distributed teams is a plus to operationalize initiatives
Experience in running large scale cloud services
Sufficient understanding of security and privacy in authentication/identity solutions
Experience integrating or leveraging AI in customer-facing products, core platforms or engineering processes is a plus
Proven ability to drive engineering process improvements and measurable success/impact

Responsibilities

Define and operationalize secure-by-default and resilient-by-default engineering models for 100+ user auth team.
Enable platform capabilities that accelerate consistent, compliant shipping.
Influence architectural direction across multiple teams and services.
Coach and influence Principal Engineers and Tech Leads across the org and division.
Drive transformative workflow adoption of AI both in engineering systems and product capabilities.
Lead critical design decisions on system decomposition, multi-tenant architecture, and central resiliency models.