Principal Software Engineer
Technology, Data & Digital · Software & Web Development · Software Engineering · QA & Testing
In short
Principal Software Engineer wanted for the Quality, Reliability, and Telemetry (QRT) team to lead automation and deep Windows platform quality in the Customer Experience Review (CER) Lab. This role involves defining productized validation capabilities for Microsoft labs and partners, ensuring Windows builds and updates land safely and predictably.
Responsibilities
- Define and communicate the multi-year technical vision, architecture, and engineering roadmap for Lab automation, productized test collateral, and OEM self-assessment.
- Lead adoption and extension of the platform, creating reference patterns that work across diverse OEM hardware, silicon, firmware, drivers, and Windows configurations.
- Drive architecture and design reviews for station control, distributed orchestration, packaging, versioning, security, telemetry, result services, and partner integration.
- Resolve systemic and high-severity technical problems through deep Windows debugging, kernel and system internals analysis, driver diagnostics, and cross-layer root-cause investigation.
- Establish engineering standards for reliability, security, privacy, observability, supportability, test determinism, and operational excellence.
- Partner with data engineering, data science, and analytics leaders to define trustworthy schemas, signals, quality bars, and decision-ready reporting.
- Set the strategy and guardrails for AI-assisted test authoring, anomaly detection, failure classification, log analysis, bug filing, and developer workflows.
- Influence and align WSSI, WSD, WECE, Surface, Windows engineering, Selfhost, Fundamentals, AppCompat, and OEM partners on requirements, interfaces, and success measures.
- Mentor senior and early-in-career engineers, create technical growth opportunities, and raise the bar for design quality, code quality, debugging depth, and end-to-end ownership.
- Use architecture, technical judgment, and measurable outcomes to guide quarterly planning, investment tradeoffs, and prioritization across multiple workstreams.
Requirements
- 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.
Desired Qualifications
- Demonstrated technical leadership of a complex platform, distributed system, developer infrastructure, or validation product used by multiple teams or external partners.
- Experience productizing and operating packaged test collateral, lab automation, or self-service validation capabilities at scale.
- Experience defining architecture and operational standards for device orchestration, telemetry, logging, tracing, result aggregation, security, and reliability.
- Recent hands-on use of generative AI models and agents for software engineering, test authoring, diagnosis, process acceleration, and developer productivity, with sound judgment about appropriate guardrails.
- Proven ability to influence senior technical stakeholders, resolve ambiguity, communicate complex decisions clearly, and drive alignment across organizations.
- Track record of mentoring engineers, strengthening engineering culture, and delivering customer-focused outcomes through others as well as through direct technical contribution.
Benefits
- The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142,800 - $274,800 per year.
- There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $188,000 - $304,200 per year.
- Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation.
- Find additional benefits and pay information here: https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay
Skills
CC++C#JavaJavaScriptPython
#Windows#Software Engineering#Quality Assurance#Automation#Telemetry#OEM#Firmware#Drivers#AI#Machine Learning
About Microsoft
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Company
MicrosoftJob Posted
3 weeks ago
Employment Type
Full Time
Work mode
Hybrid
Salary
US$142,800–274,800 · Negotiable
Experience Level
Mid-Senior
Locations
United States
Qualification
Bachelor
Applicants
Be an early applicant
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