Principal Software Engineer, Distributed Systems
About The Position
MSN, part of Microsoft's AI Experiences organization, is a personalized content feed that powers content experiences across Microsoft. The Principal Software Engineer will design, build, and operationalize hyperscale distributed systems supporting Microsoft content and media experiences. The role combines complex distributed-systems engineering with the development of high-throughput platforms for content ingestion, processing, transformation, and delivery. The engineer will own systems end to end, from platform architecture and processing pipelines through orchestration and serving layers, and ensure reliable, efficient operation at hyperscale. The role involves partnering with engineers, product managers, and cross-functional stakeholders to define requirements and deliver business-impacting solutions. It also includes designing scalable APIs, data pipelines, and feature and signal stores that provide efficient, secure, and reliable data flow between machine-learning systems and product surfaces. The engineer will contribute to live-site excellence through instrumentation, monitoring, capacity planning, and incident response for backend services. AI Experiences employees living within a 50-mile commute of a designated U.S. Microsoft Hub are expected to work in the office at least four days per week, subject to local law and jurisdiction.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field and at least 6 years of technical engineering experience, including experience with distributed systems and/or backend services; alternatively, equivalent experience.
- Coding experience in one or more languages such as C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python.
- Ability to meet Microsoft, customer, and/or government security screening requirements, including passing the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire or transfer and every two years thereafter.
Nice To Haves
- Master's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field and at least 8 years of technical engineering experience in distributed systems and/or backend services; alternatively, a bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field and at least 12 years of technical engineering experience, or equivalent experience.
- Experience with large-scale system architecture, design, development, testing, and release, including web applications, layered microservices, database design, API design, performance tuning, and telemetry design and analysis.
- Ability to design complex distributed-systems workflows by gathering partner-team requirements, identifying dependencies, aligning on designs with partner and product teams, and leading implementation.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
- Programming expertise and knowledge of architectural patterns for large, high-scale applications.
- Strong software engineering practices, coding skills, and foundations in data structures and algorithms, with demonstrated testing, debugging, and analytical skills.
- Data-driven mindset and ability to analyze data and persuade a team through effective analysis.
- Excellent learning, problem-solving, and communication skills.
Responsibilities
- Own the design and development of reliable, scalable, and performant distributed software systems.
- Work with engineers, product managers, and cross-functional partners to deliver impactful features and improvements.
- Write high-quality, maintainable, testable code and participate in code reviews.
- Identify and resolve production issues and continuously improve system performance and reliability.
- Collaborate with stakeholders to gather requirements, translate them into technical specifications, and deliver solutions aligned with business goals.
- Design scalable APIs, data pipelines, and feature and signal stores to support efficient, secure, and reliable data flow between machine-learning systems and product surfaces.
- Drive live-site excellence for backend services through instrumentation, monitoring, capacity planning, and incident response.
- Take initiative, think proactively, and contribute to continuous improvement.
Benefits
- Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation; additional information is available through Microsoft's careers pay and benefits page.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Principal
