Senior Software Engineer

Microsoft • Redmond, WA

2d • $119,800 - $261,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Intelligent Conversation and Communication Cloud (IC3) powers real-time conversations across Microsoft Teams, Dynamics 365, and Azure Communication Services. The IC3 Data Platform team builds globally distributed data infrastructure for analytics, service reliability, business intelligence, and AI-powered experiences. Its Universal Counter System (UCS) is a large-scale, multi-tenant streaming platform that transforms high-volume event streams into near-real-time counters for protection, reliability, and Microsoft 365 product scenarios. UCS processes millions of events per second and supports large-scale state management, low-latency serving, exactly-once processing, regional resiliency, and platform governance.

Microsoft is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to build the next generation of UCS and the IC3 streaming platform. The role applies large-scale, real-time data processing expertise to deliver reliable, high-performance services. It involves architectural decisions across distributed systems, data processing, identity, privacy, compliance, reliability, and multi-tenant design; writing and reviewing production code; establishing engineering and operational standards; and guiding solutions from design through operation. The engineer collaborates with engineering, product, security, compliance, and infrastructure teams to resolve ambiguous requirements and deliver scalable solutions.

The engineer will advance AI-assisted engineering while maintaining human review, automated testing, security, and production-quality standards; mentor engineers; and influence technical direction across Microsoft organizational boundaries. The position is based in Redmond, Washington, and requires working in the office at least three days per week.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field and 4+ 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 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 6+ years of technical engineering experience coding in languages including C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python; or a bachelor's degree in a related field and 8+ years of such experience; or equivalent experience.
• Experience designing, developing, and operating reliable, large-scale, globally distributed production systems, particularly for real-time and near-real-time data processing.
• Hands-on experience with distributed streaming and cloud technologies such as Apache Flink, Spark, Kafka, Kubernetes, Azure Event Hubs, or related platforms.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools and agentic workflows across the software development lifecycle, including reviewing agent-generated code and pull requests with production-grade rigor.
• Ability to influence without authority, align teams, and build effective partnerships with engineers, product managers, and leaders.
• Demonstrated technical leadership, problem-solving, and communication skills.
• Solid understanding of data privacy, compliance, and security in large-scale distributed systems.
• Experience in large-scale real-time and near-real-time data processing, hands-on experience with Apache Flink and Spark, and AI-assisted software development and automation.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and development of UCS, a self-service real-time streaming solution for event ingestion, stateful processing, near-real-time aggregation, low-latency serving, observability, and governance.
• Make architectural decisions spanning distributed systems, data processing, identity, privacy, compliance, reliability, and multi-tenant design.
• Write and review production code and establish engineering and operational standards.
• Guide solutions from design through operation.
• Leverage Microsoft Azure, AI technologies, and open-source frameworks such as Flink and Spark to modernize data platforms and enable next-generation communication experiences.
• Advance AI-native software development through coding agents, agentic workflows, and harness engineering while maintaining human review, automated testing, security, and production-quality standards.
• Partner with engineering and product teams across Microsoft to define requirements, align technically, and deliver trusted, end-to-end data solutions.
• Collaborate with security, compliance, and infrastructure teams to resolve ambiguous requirements and deliver scalable solutions.
• Mentor engineers and influence technical direction across Microsoft organizational boundaries.

What This Job Offers

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