JOB DETAILS

Principal Software Engineer

CompanyMicrosoft
LocationUnited States
Work ModeOn Site
PostedDecember 13, 2025
About The Company
Every company has a mission. What's ours? To empower every person and every organization to achieve more. We believe technology can and should be a force for good and that meaningful innovation contributes to a brighter world in the future and today. Our culture doesn’t just encourage curiosity; it embraces it. Each day we make progress together by showing up as our authentic selves. We show up with a learn-it-all mentality. We show up cheering on others, knowing their success doesn't diminish our own. We show up every day open to learning our own biases, changing our behavior, and inviting in differences. Because impact matters. Microsoft operates in 190 countries and is made up of approximately 228,000 passionate employees worldwide.
About the Role
Overview

Microsoft Azure is in the cloud race to win it! We are part of the Azure networking team responsible for designing, building, and operating critical network services that will help us differentiate from our fierce competitors and generate new revenue. We are responsible for connecting our world-wide cloud datacenters and enabling enterprises to connect their on-premises networks and devices to the cloud, in the most secure and performant way possible. Our team also builds application delivery services such as load balancing and firewalls. At the core of these services is a solid Software-Defined Networking (SDN) to autonomously manage the network with continuous innovation to improve agility, scalability, reliability, and cost effectiveness of our services. 


We are looking for a Principal Software Engineer who will serve as the subject matter expert (SME) and be responsible for defining the technical direction for the next level of scale and performance of the control plane. This role focuses on building and evolving high-impact network services that deliver reliable connectivity, security, and application delivery at cloud scale.

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
  • Partners with appropriate stakeholders to determine user requirements for one or more complex scenarios.
  • Provides technical leadership for the identification of dependencies and the development of design documents for a product, application, service, or platform.
  • Leads by example and mentors others to produce extensible and maintainable code used across the company.
  • Leverages deep subject-matter expertise of cross-product features with appropriate stakeholders (e.g., project managers) to lead multiple product's project plans, release plans, and work items.
  • Holds accountability as a Designated Responsible Individual (DRI), mentoring engineers across products/solutions, working on-call to monitor system/product/service for degradation, downtime, or interruptions.
  • Proactively seeks new knowledge and adapts to new trends, technical solutions, and patterns that will improve the availability, reliability, efficiency, observability, and performance of products while also driving consistency in monitoring and operations at scale and shares knowledge with other engineers.
  • Other:



Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

  • Bachelor'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.
  • Experience in cloud computing or building large scale backend services.

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.

Additional or Preferred Qualifications:

  • 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 Master'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 equivalent experience.


Software Engineering IC6 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $163,000 - $296,400 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 $220,800 - $331,200 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.

Key Skills
Software EngineeringCloud ComputingCC++C#JavaJavaScriptPythonNetworkingApplication DeliveryLoad BalancingFirewallsSoftware-Defined NetworkingTechnical LeadershipMentoringSystem MonitoringAgility
Categories
TechnologySoftwareEngineering
Job Information
📋Core Responsibilities
The Principal Software Engineer will define the technical direction for the control plane's scale and performance, focusing on building high-impact network services. They will also provide technical leadership and mentor other engineers.
📋Job Type
full time
💰Salary Range
$163,000 - $296,400
📊Experience Level
10+
💼Company Size
226092
📊Visa Sponsorship
No
💼Language
English
🏢Working Hours
40 hours
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