Principal Software Engineering Manager
Microsoft
Job Overview
Microsoft is a company where passionate innovators come to collaborate, envision what can be and take their careers further. This is a world of more possibilities, more innovation, more openness, and the sky is the limit thinking in a cloud-enabled world.
Microsoft’s Azure Data engineering team is leading the transformation of analytics in the world of data with products like databases, data integration, big data analytics, messaging & real-time analytics, and business intelligence. The products our portfolio include Microsoft Fabric, Azure SQL DB, Azure Cosmos DB, Azure PostgreSQL, Azure Data Factory, Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure Service Bus, Azure Event Grid, and Power BI. Our mission is to build the data platform for the age of AI, powering a new class of data-first applications and driving a data culture.
Within Azure Data, the databases team builds and maintains Microsoft's operational Database systems. We store and manage data in a structured way to enable multitude of applications across various industries. We are on a journey to enable developer friendly, mission-critical, AI enabled operational Databases across relational, non-relational and OSS offerings.
Are you passionate about Database Technology and Cloud Computing and fascinated by challenges such as optimizing the management of millions of databases across a wide price/performance spectrum?
Microsoft Database Platform delivers world class relational database technologies used across the globe on everything from small devices, desktops and servers to some of the largest Cloud deployments in the world. Our data platform powers innovation in every industry, facilitates breakthrough scientific and medical research, and underpins intelligent applications that are changing the way we live. Enterprise customers are using these platforms to disrupt markets and transform their existing businesses. Today Microsoft is considered a leader when it comes to innovation in data platform capabilities.
We are operating hundreds of thousands of servers worldwide with millions of databases in over 50 Azure regions. Our products push the limits of technology to exceed requirements of the most demanding data applications in the world, and our teams love solving these planet scale high impact challenges.
With this unprecedented growth comes added complexity in our hardware ecosystem, at scales we never imagined before. This is your opportunity to take on a challenge and join Azure Data SQL Performance Engineering & Hardware team from the ground up. This team is on a mission to deliver the world class, cost effective, & high-performance operational database for On-Prem and Cloud platform running on modern h/w technology.
We are a diverse team of people with various views, backgrounds and beliefs. We invest in each other’s success and respect each other. We work at all layers of the technology stack and have both technically deep and broad challenges. If that sounds exciting to you, then the Data Platform Performance Engineering & Hardware team could be a great place to call home.
We are hiring software engineers to help design and implement the technologies that will enable Microsoft to tackle a new set of enterprise and cloud problems.
We do not just value differences or different perspectives. We seek them out and invite them in so we can tap into the collective power of everyone in the company. As a result, our customers are better served.
Responsibilities
Job Responsibilities
We are looking for a Principal Software Engineering manager with a passion for technology and for helping customers succeed on our platform by building the next generation high performance database products for cloud and on-prem that will delight our customers. You have an opportunity to work on these technologies (Azure SQL Database, SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines) with a focus on driving product performance, scalability, and reducing TCO. You will have the opportunity to work on scale-up performance of SQL on a single system (1000+ cores, 24TB+ ram, 100 Gbit NIC ...), scale-out performance (SQL big-data clusters with 100+ nodes) and optimization of SQL for Cloud. The optimizations will also aim to fully leverage capabilities in upcoming technologies (new technologies for cloud native databases, new processor architectures, storage, networking, memory, PCI interface etc.) in order to deliver better performance and reduce TCO.
Responsibilities include contributions to one or more of the following:
Build, mentor, and retain a high‑performing team of engineers.
Drive career growth, performance management, and a culture of technical excellence and accountability.
Coach senior engineers to operate with scope and ownership; develop future technical and people leaders.
Partner with Product Managers, SRE, capacity, hardware, and platform teams to align priorities and execution.
Represent the team in technical reviews, planning forums, and stakeholder discussions.
Gain an understanding of Microsoft businesses and collaborate with leaders to contribute to cohesive, end-to-end experiences for our users & customers.
Contribute to current/upcoming product improvements that have key performance deliverables solutions in collaboration with teammates.
Collaborate with OEMs partners in analyzing SQL performance on modern h/w technologies and showcasing product performance for technical marketing deliverables (benchmarks, white papers, demos, etc.)
Look into emerging and upcoming Azure SKUs and technologies and exploring new ideas to drive product improvements (hardware/software/config/COGS). This will also include modelling, competitive analysis & benchmarks.
Strengthen the engineering process to make sure that cloud deployments (software & hardware) are done in the most efficient way and meet the targeted perf/scale/SLA goals.
Identify improvements in supportability that enable performance analysis with a focus on cloud and on-prem platforms.
Stay educated on existing and state of the art technologies, and do POCs to evaluate technology fits for customer needs.
Qualifications
Qualifications
Required/Minimum Qualifications
Minimum 10+ years of programming experience in C/C++/C#/Java/Python.
3+ years of experience leading engineering teams or technical groups.
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or Engineering or Mathematics or Physics.
Track record of successfully leading end-to-end engineering projects from conception to delivery across multiple ship cycles
Excellent technical design, problem solving and debugging skills
Customer obsession and passion for shipping high quality products
Track record of collaborating effectively with multiple cross-functional teams across geographies
Preferred Qualifications:
Extensive and specialized knowledge in one or more of the following areas: Database/OS internals, Hardware knowledge (CPU/System/Networking/Storage), and Cloud related technologies.
Strong problem-solving, interpersonal, and communication skills.
Great curiosity and willingness to question, undaunted by hard technical problems.
5+ years of experience designing and developing production quality software using C/C++.
Proven experience in improving product performance.
Experience in both Windows and Linux system performance tools.
MS in CS/CSE/EE or related discipline.
Job Requirements: Other & Additional
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/Additional 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.
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.