Principal Software Engineer
Microsoft
Software Engineering
Vancouver, BC, Canada
CAD 142,400-257,500 / year
Reimagine how millions of users find and interact with their content every day.
We are seeking a Principal Software Engineer to lead innovation in the search experience across OneDrive and SharePoint. This role will focus on improving relevance, personalization, and performance of the search box experience — enabling users to efficiently discover the most important content across Microsoft 365.
You will drive the architecture and development of large-scale distributed systems, partnering across teams to deliver end-to-end solutions that span user experiences, backend services, and platform dependencies. You will apply AI-native development practices and data-driven approaches to continuously improve both product experiences and engineering effectiveness.
As a senior technical leader, you will lead technical execution, collaborate across teams to align on architecture and delivery, and mentor engineers while raising the bar on system design, reliability, and engineering excellence.
Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.
Responsibilities
- Lead the architecture, design, and delivery of large-scale distributed systems, ensuring scalability, reliability, performance, and cost efficiency
- Drive adoption of modern engineering practices across the software development lifecycle, including AI-assisted development and data-driven decision making
- Establish and uphold best practices for code quality, testing, performance, and maintainability
- Own end-to-end technical delivery for complex initiatives, including design decisions, dependency management, and cross-team alignment
- Collaborate across teams to define and deliver cohesive, end-to-end solutions spanning multiple services and platforms
- Contribute to engineering excellence by driving standards in security, privacy, compliance, and automated development and deployment practices
- Lead experimentation and continuous improvement through telemetry, metrics, and A/B testing to inform product and system decisions
- Own live-site reliability and operational excellence, including monitoring, incident response, and long-term service health improvements
- Mentor engineers and contribute to a strong engineering culture through design reviews, code reviews, and technical guidance
Qualifications
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.
- 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.
- Experience building and operating cloud-scale systems (e.g., Microsoft 365, Azure, or similar platforms).
- Experience driving architecture and long-term technical strategy across complex systems.
- Experience with AI/ML or AI-assisted development practices.
- Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers and contribute to engineering excellence.
- Experience designing and building large-scale distributed systems.
- Proven ability to lead complex technical initiatives across multiple teams or systems.
- Solid experience with system design, performance optimization, reliability, and debugging.
Software Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across Canada is CAD $142,400 - CAD $257,500 per year.
Find additional pay information here:
https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/canada-pay-information.html
Software Engineering IC5 - L'échelle salariale de base typique pour ce rôle dans l'ensemble du Canada est de 142,400 $ CAD à 257,500 $ CAD par année.
Pour plus d'information au sujet de la rémunération, veuillez cliquer ici:
https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/canada-pay-information.html
Ce poste sera ouvert pendant au moins cinq jours et les candidatures seront acceptées de façon continue jusqu’à ce que le poste soit pourvu.
This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.
Microsoft est un employeur offrant l’égalité d’accès à l’emploi. Tous les candidats qualifiés seront pris en considération pour l’emploi, sans égard à l’âge, à l’ascendance, à la citoyenneté, à la couleur, aux congés médicaux ou familiaux, à l’identité ou à l’expression de genre, aux renseignements génétiques, à l’état d’immigration, à l’état matrimonial, à l’état de santé, à l’origine nationale, à un éventuel handicap physique ou mental, à l’affiliation politique, au statut de vétéran protégé ou au statut militaire, à la race, à l’ethnie, à la religion, au sexe (y compris la grossesse), à l’orientation sexuelle ou à toute autre caractéristique protégée par les lois, ordonnances et règlements locaux applicables. Si vous avez besoin d’aide avec des accommodements religieux et/ou d’un accommodement raisonnable en raison d’un handicap pendant le processus de candidature, apprenez-en plus sur la demande d’accommodement.
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.