Principal Software Engineer- Substrate SPARTANs

Microsoft•Redmond, WA

About The Position

The Principal Software Engineer will join the Special Projects and Resources Team (SPARTANs) in M365 Core – Substrate. SPARTANs take on strategic projects and difficult problems across M365 Core to remove agility and modernization barriers for Substrate engineers. Substrate is the data and intelligence platform underpinning Microsoft 365, enabling partner teams to build, run, and modernize compliant, reliable services at global scale. The team undertakes outcome-oriented missions in areas such as modernization, resilience, cost optimization, compliance, and developer productivity. This role leads complex engineering work in ambiguous environments, taking projects from problem framing through deployment and measurement. It requires deep technical expertise in distributed systems and performance engineering, sound judgment under incomplete information, and the ability to influence partner teams and executives without relying on direct authority. The engineer will also mentor senior and principal engineers and promote inclusive, collaborative engineering practices. The position requires a bachelor's degree in computer science or a related technical field and at least six years of technical engineering experience with coding, or equivalent experience. Candidates must meet Microsoft's, customer’s, and/or government security screening requirements, including passing the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire or transfer and every two years thereafter. Preferred qualifications include a master's degree and eight or more years of experience, or a bachelor's degree and twelve or more years of experience, or equivalent experience. Experience with large-scale modernization, developer productivity, compliance-constrained engineering, architecture ownership, and building reliable services is preferred. The typical U.S. base pay range is USD $142,800–$274,800 per year. For specific work locations in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City metropolitan area, the range is USD $188,000–$304,200 per year. Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Applications are accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled, and the position will be open for at least five days.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field and 6+ years of technical engineering experience coding in languages including C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python, or equivalent experience.
Technical leadership on complex distributed systems, delivered through influence rather than authority.
Strong design and coding skills in C#, Java, C++, Rust, or a comparable language.
A tested approach to gaining expertise and confidence in unfamiliar codebases.
Strong distributed systems fundamentals, including experience with high-scale, low-latency, always-on services that are inexpensive to operate.
Demonstrated performance engineering experience, including diagnosing and fixing performance and cost problems in production.
Excellent cross-group influence and clear written and verbal communication, including presenting evidence-based impact to executive audiences.
Inclusive and collaborative working style, with strong listening and open communication skills.
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 8+ years of technical engineering experience coding in languages including C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python, or equivalent experience.
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field and 12+ years of technical engineering experience coding in languages including C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python, or equivalent experience.
Experience with modernization at scale, such as framework, language, or platform migrations; developer productivity; or compliance-constrained engineering.
Proven ownership of architecture for a significant service or platform component.
Experience building reliable and resilient services and ramping quickly on new technologies.
Solid coding, design, and problem-solving skills.

Responsibilities

Navigate ambiguous problems by quickly understanding unfamiliar codebases, developing defensible hypotheses, and turning open-ended requests into scoped projects with clear success criteria.
Own the technical outcomes of high-visibility projects from problem framing through deployment and measured impact.
Produce clean, testable, and observable code, and leave reusable patterns, documentation, and playbooks for partner teams.
Align partner teams, negotiate dependencies and sequencing, and deliver changes across repositories and service boundaries outside the role’s direct ownership.
Communicate technical positions effectively to executives and engineers who will work with the resulting designs.
Use sound judgment to weigh reliability, cost, compliance, and time-to-impact; make tradeoffs explicit and revisit decisions as evidence changes.
Diagnose and resolve latency, scale, and cost issues in always-on distributed services; improve resilience, observability, and incident readiness.
Serve as a Designated Responsible Individual across products when required by an engagement.
Mentor senior and principal engineers and review designs across the organization.
Help grow engineering capability by sharing effective approaches to ramping up quickly and reasoning through problems; model learning from mistakes.
Collaborate inclusively and help ensure that team members feel they belong.