Principal Software Engineer

Microsoft • Redmond, WA

3d • $165,600 - $331,200

About The Position

Microsoft Security builds security solutions to protect users, customers, developers, and Microsoft’s digital platforms, devices, and cloud environments. Microsoft Entra ID provides authentication, authorization, and directory services for Microsoft cloud products, serving millions of tenants and billions of identities and requests daily. The role joins a team evolving Entra ID’s backend directory store platform for future needs, using storage and distributed-systems technologies and algorithms to solve problems at scale and with high performance.

The Principal Software Engineer designs and develops large-scale distributed services and solutions, promotes modern engineering practices, and builds secure, reliable, observable, and maintainable systems. The role uses data and telemetry to inform system design, improves testing and operational practices, contributes to customer-focused end-to-end experiences, and helps optimize Live Site automation, reliability, and monitoring.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related technical field and 8+ years of technical engineering experience coding in languages such as C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python, or equivalent experience.
• 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 12+ years of technical engineering experience coding in languages such as C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python; or a bachelor’s degree in the field and 15+ years of such experience; or equivalent experience.
• 5+ years of experience designing, building, and operating scalable, highly available cloud services or distributed systems on Azure, AWS, GCP, or comparable cloud environments, including production ownership and CI/CD pipeline integration.
• 3+ years of experience building systems emphasizing reliability, durability, and operational efficiency, including Live Site operations, incident response, and performance optimization.
• Experience leading projects from conception to delivery, including design, code review, and delivery.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop large-scale distributed software services and solutions.
• Drive modern software engineering practices through design and code reviews.
• Perform system design with well-defined interfaces across multiple components, using data and telemetry to inform decisions.
• Develop modular, secure, reliable, diagnosable, actively monitored, and reusable service components.
• Improve test coverage, organize and implement integration tests, and resolve problem areas.
• Prioritize testability, portability, monitoring, reliability, and maintainability, and determine when code is ready to be shared and delivered.
• Develop an understanding of Microsoft businesses and collaborate with mentors and leaders to contribute to cohesive, end-to-end user experiences focused on customer and partner needs through a data-driven approach.
• Troubleshoot and optimize automation, reliability, and monitoring for Live Site.
• Embody Microsoft’s culture and values.

Benefits

• The posting states that certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation and links to additional benefits and pay information; it does not specify particular benefits.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal