The Job

Principal Software Engineer

Technology, Data & Digital · Software & Web Development · Software Engineering

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In short

We are seeking a Principal Software Engineer for the SPARTANs team within M365 Core - Substrate. This role involves tackling complex, strategic projects to remove agility and modernization barriers for engineers. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in distributed systems, C#, Java, C++, or Rust, and a proven track record of technical leadership.

Responsibilities

  • Take on problems where requirements, ownership, and root cause are unsettled.
  • Build working models of unfamiliar codebases quickly, form hypotheses, and scope projects with clear success criteria.
  • Own technical outcomes of high-visibility projects from problem framing through deployment and impact.
  • Set the bar for clean, testable, observable code, and leave reusable patterns, documentation, and playbooks.
  • Build coalitions, align partner teams, negotiate dependencies, and land changes across repositories.
  • Represent technical positions credibly to executives and engineers.
  • Exercise strong judgment, deciding what to build, defer, or stop, weighing reliability, cost, compliance, and time-to-impact.
  • Diagnose and fix latency, scale, and cost problems in distributed services.
  • Improve resilience, observability, and incident readiness.
  • Serve as a Designated Responsible Individual where engagement calls for it.
  • Mentor senior and principal engineers, review designs, and develop techniques in others.
  • Model a growth mindset that treats mistakes as a source of more reliable engineering.

Requirements

  • A track record of technical leadership on complex distributed systems, delivered through influence rather than authority.
  • Depth in design and coding in C#, Java, C++, Rust, or a comparable language, with a tested approach for gaining expertise and confidence in unfamiliar codebases.
  • Solid distributed systems fundamentals: 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 crisp written and verbal communication, including the ability to tell the story of impact to executive audiences with evidence.
  • Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 6+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python, OR equivalent experience.
  • Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements.
  • Must pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.

Desired Qualifications

  • Master's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
  • OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 12+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
  • OR equivalent experience.
  • Solid coding, design, and problem-solving skills, with proven ownership of architecture for a significant service or platform component.
  • Experience building reliable and resilient services, and ramping quickly on new technologies.
  • Experience with modernization at scale (framework, language, or platform migrations), developer productivity, or compliance-constrained engineering.

Benefits

  • Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation.
#M365 Core#Substrate#SPARTANs#Special Projects and Resources Team
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Company

Microsoft

Job Posted

1 week ago

Employment Type

Full Time

WorkMode

Remote

Experience Level

Senior

Locations

United States

Qualification

Bachelor, Master

Applicants

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