Principal Software Engineer

Microsoft•Redmond, WA

2d•$165,600 - $331,200

About The Position

The Windows Engineering Systems Build team creates and operates build orchestration and execution systems, lab infrastructure, signal production and analysis capabilities, and developer tools that enable engineers across Microsoft to produce Windows and other foundational software at scale. Its systems connect source code, dependencies, compilers, security controls, artifacts, diagnostics, and distributed infrastructure across a large engineering ecosystem. The Principal Software Engineer provides technical leadership across Build and the broader Windows engineering ecosystem. The role defines architectural direction, leads complex multi-quarter initiatives, and solves ambiguous problems across organizational and technical boundaries while remaining hands-on. The engineer influences strategy, raises technical standards, develops talent, and enables teams to deliver at greater scale. The role balances modernization with compatibility and operational continuity, turning recurring developer and operational challenges into durable platform capabilities, diagnostics, guardrails, and engineering practices.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field and 8+ years of technical engineering experience coding in languages including C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python, or equivalent experience.
Ability to meet Microsoft, customer, and/or government security screening requirements, including 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 10+ years of technical engineering experience coding in languages including C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Python, or TypeScript; or a bachelor's degree in a related field and 12+ years of such experience; or equivalent experience.
Experience defining architecture and technical strategy for complex systems used by multiple teams or organizations.
Experience with Windows internals, native software development, and build technologies such as C++, C#, PowerShell, MSBuild, BuildXL, Bazel, distributed build execution, or distributed caching.
Experience with developer infrastructure, build systems, compilers, CI/CD platforms, dependency management, or large-scale distributed services, including Azure DevOps pipelines, GitHub Actions, or comparable technologies.
Experience designing, building, operating, or modernizing critical software and production services at scale, including incident response, reliability, security, performance, and compatibility considerations.
Experience using telemetry and diagnostic technologies such as Kusto Query Language (KQL), Azure Data Explorer, Application Insights, or comparable technologies to troubleshoot complex systems and improve reliability or developer productivity.
Demonstrated ability to lead complex technical initiatives across organizational boundaries and influence architecture, engineering practices, and investment decisions without direct authority.
Demonstrated ability to communicate complex technical decisions, risks, and tradeoffs to engineering leaders, partner teams, and other stakeholders.
Experience developing engineers and technical leaders, creating clarity in ambiguous situations, and raising engineering capability across a team or organization.
Knowledge of secure development and software-supply-chain practices, including dependency governance, provenance, artifact integrity, compliance, and security automation.
Experience applying AI-assisted development technologies responsibly to improve engineering quality, investigation, diagnostics, or productivity.
Track record of converting recurring operational or developer problems into scalable platform improvements, diagnostics, automation, or engineering guardrails.
Experience designing, building, and delivering complex software systems, developer infrastructure, or production services.
Experience leading technical projects or initiatives spanning multiple components, teams, or organizations.
Experience providing technical leadership, developing other engineers, and driving execution across complex engineering initiatives.

Responsibilities

Define and drive technical strategy and architecture for foundational build tools, services, and engineering workflows used across Windows and partner organizations.
Lead multi-quarter initiatives to modernize critical engineering systems and improve reliability, performance, security, maintainability, observability, and developer experience.
Identify systemic opportunities across the engineering ecosystem and translate ambiguous business, developer, and operational needs into technical direction and durable platform investments.
Design and deliver solutions across build orchestration, distributed execution, caching, compilers, toolchains, dependency management, artifact production, diagnostics, and engineering infrastructure.
Diagnose complex, high-impact failures across organizational and technology boundaries, driving investigations from initial evidence through root cause, remediation, and prevention.
Establish architectural principles, engineering standards, and technical decision frameworks that help teams evolve critical systems safely and consistently.
Partner with Windows product, security, and Engineering Systems teams to integrate capabilities while protecting compatibility, scale, and operational continuity.
Establish measurable success criteria, telemetry, and operational signals for reliability, performance, adoption, regressions, and customer impact.
Advance secure software-supply-chain practices, including dependency governance, provenance, artifact integrity, policy enforcement, and compliance automation.
Provide technical leadership during significant operational events and help teams understand failure modes, make sound tradeoffs, and implement systemic reliability improvements.
Use and advance AI-assisted engineering workflows for investigation, implementation, review, diagnostics, and operational response while maintaining rigorous validation, security, and engineering judgment.
Influence technical decisions across teams and organizations by communicating architecture, risks, tradeoffs, priorities, and long-term consequences to technical and nontechnical audiences.
Develop and mentor engineers and technical leaders through architecture and code reviews, debugging, project leadership, career development, and thoughtful delegation of technical ownership.
Increase the effectiveness of the broader engineering organization by creating reusable designs, tools, diagnostics, documentation, and engineering practices.