You thrive when solving complex, high‑scale engineering problems that shape the foundation of the Microsoft Cloud. In this role, you will join a team that builds core platform capabilities enabling reliability, agility, and developer productivity across Azure’s most critical systems. You will contribute to engineering that empowers millions of customers and thousands of internal developers—helping accelerate innovation across the company.

As a member of this team, you bring strong systems thinking, a interest in creating resilient distributed services, and a desire to collaborate deeply with partner teams across Azure. You will help design and implement platform components that simplify how services operate, scale, and evolve. You will be joining a group that values clarity, craftsmanship, and customer‑obsession in equal measure.

As a Principal Software Engineer, you will design, build, and improve cloud‑scale services and foundational engineering systems. You will contribute to the architecture of distributed systems, implement robust software components, drive quality through automated testing, and partner closely with engineers across organizations to integrate capabilities end‑to‑end. You will regularly engage in diagnosing complex issues, improving service reliability, and advancing the engineering fundamentals that Microsoft's cloud depends on.

Microsoft aims to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. We believe in a culture of growth mindset, customer obsession, diverse & inclusive teams, and working together to make a difference. We embrace learning, curiosity, and continuous improvement. In this role, you will live these values by modeling respect, accountability, and collaboration every day.

• Design, build, and maintain reliable, scalable, and secure software components for cloud services and platform systems.
• Partner with peers and technical leaders to define architectural patterns, engineering standards, and long‑term platform strategy.
• Deliver high‑quality code through rigorous testing, code reviews, telemetry‑driven insights, and strong engineering fundamentals.
• Debug complex, distributed system issues across components, services, or layers, and drive root‑cause identification and long‑term fixes.
• Collaborate across multiple Azure teams to integrate features, align dependencies, and drive consistency in engineering approaches.

Required Qualifications:

• 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.

Other Qualifications:

• Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role. These requirements include, but are not limited to the following specialized security screenings:
  • Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
  • OR related technical field AND 10+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, OR Python
  • OR 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 equivalent experience.

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Software Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $139,900 - $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

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.